Living the dream...

Why...

2011-11-26T18:49:00.001-06:00

We want to ask why, we want a reason, an explanation, someone to warn us before bad things happen. The problem is that's usually never the case. Most times there isn't an explanation and even if there is a reason, we will never understand it. The reason why is way beyond our mental capacity.

This year has been full of unanswered whys, full of explanations that I can't understand. I know God has a plan, which we should never question, no matter how hard it might be. But I have found myself questioning... People, loved ones taken too soon. Jobs lost, friends forgotten... shouldn't there be an explantion for it all?
In turn this year has had moments that have taken my breath away, moments I will cherish and moments I will hold in my heart forever. Yet I still find myself asking why? What did I do to deserve these things while others are so unfortunate. It's that explanation I will never understand.
Through our struggles, our trials, our tribulations there is good... there are times to smile and there are also times to weep. These times will only make us stronger, only get us closer to that understanding of WHY.

Clarity

2011-09-13T19:52:00.000-05:00

"You know when you have reached the point, that fork in the road. You have to make the ulitimate decision that will affect the rest of your life. Unfortuantly this always seems to happen when you are not ready for it and barely have time to think about it. You make a decision you regret, or you make a decision that will make everything better, or at least some things better. All you want is clarity, clarity in your life, clarity in your mind but most importantly clarity in your heart. You want to walk in that room and feel completely at ease knowing you have made the right decision and anyone that doesn't believe that can go f themselves. Why do we all strive for satisfaction from everyone else, everyone else isn't living your life. It's your life, it's your decision, it's your happiness. If your so called friends, don't support you in the decision you make, the decision that will make you happy, then what kind of friends are they? I once heard you will die a lucky person if you have 5 good friends in your life, 5. So why am I so concerned about all of these "friends" its all fake, its all about that satisfaction. Who cares, I want to surround myself with people who actually care about me for me, not for choices I have made or will make. We all make mistakes, we all trip and fall down, and yes we all get back up, its part of life. Some falls are worse than others and some take us a lot longer to get up from but eventually when the time is right we move on and our past is forgotten. At least it should be forgotten because we aren't God we can't go back and change things, all though sometimes we pray we can. Stop living in the past, grow up, learn and move on, its called Life. Stop listening to what everyone else in the world has to say and listen to what's inside yourself. If it says to go to the right then go, but if it says go to the left then do it. Take a chance on what you want, what you believe in and forget about everyone else. If they really care they will be there in the end. Everything will will fit together in the end. The pieces might be a little dirty, they might be a little worn but they still fit the puzzle. I am finally taking that step in the other direction, that direction my heart, mind and soul have been screaming at me to take but I have been ignoring because I was to busy and caught up in everyone elses words and life. If you really care about me, if you really are concerned with my happiness you will be there in the end. When the dust settles and the skies are clear, when that "clarity" we have been looking for is there, will you be?"

To Realize...

2011-08-23T12:23:00.000-05:00

To realize The value of a sister/brother
Ask someone Who doesn't have one.

To realize The value of ten years:
Ask a newly Divorced couple.

To realize The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.

To realize The value of one year:
Ask a student who Has failed a final exam.

To realize The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize The value of one month:
Ask a mother Who has given birth to A premature baby.

To realize The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize The value of one minute:
Ask a person Who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize The value of one second:
Ask a person Who has survived an accident.

Time waits for no one.
Treasure every moment you have.

You will treasure it even more when
You can share it with someone special.

To realize the value of a friend or family member:

LOSE ONE.

A busy summer coming to an end

2011-08-16T13:56:00.001-05:00

Connecticut Sunset

Missouri Sunset

What a summer it has been. From starting a new job to July recruiting to many adventures in St. Louis, this summer has been a success. Maybe a little damaging to my bank account but still a success. I love my new job, the people I am working with and especially being back in Missouri. Although there are many people and things (the Beach) I miss back in CT, I am settling in nicely here.

This was my first experience of July recruiting and what a July it was. Out of every where I went (Indy, Chi, B-Town, KC) I will have to give props to Indy. It's a fun city and I really enjoyed spending time here. Now of course KC was my favorite by far but mainly for the fact its like a second home to me. I know that city like its the back of my hand as well as knowing many people that live there I was able to see. Lets not forget about the whole purpose of July, recruiting... it's not as bad as someone might think. Sitting in a gym watching basketball for 8-10 hours a day could be a lot worse, but when you are surrounded by an assortment of other coaches you're bound to have a little fun.

Definitely one of the highlights of my Summer was my 15 hours spent in Ames for a little Cyclone reunion. Like I have mentioned in my blog many times, those ladies are my best friends, and they always will be. We had a great time pretending like we were seniors all over again and had just made it to the Elite 8.

Kenny Chesney and Billy Currington

Craig Morgan at the Rodeo!

I think I saw more concerts and Cardinals games this summer than I have in a long time. From Kenny Chesney to Craig Morgan and a few Cards win... it was all worth it!

To finish up my summer, I made a fantastic purchase off of Stub Hub... Another Concert... Taylor Swift tickets and you better believe it, it was worth every penny I spent. She was amazing, and her concert is like none I have been to before. So many props, wardrobe changes, and different sets. As I sat surround by 8-15 year old girls screaming at the top of their lungs, I decided this is definitely one of the finer moments in my life :).

Don't Quit - Don't give Up.

2011-07-11T13:31:00.000-05:00

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don't give up though the pace seems slow--

You may succeed with another blow,

Success is failure turned inside out--

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far;

So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Things I've learned...

2011-06-26T21:09:00.000-05:00

1. Family always comes first.

2. Money isn't everything.

3. It's not about where you are, it's about who you surround yourself with.

4. Don't forget to keep in touch with old friends.

5. High school was a long time ago, people change.

6. College flies by, no matter how hard you try for it not to. Live it up, every second you can.

7. No matter how many times you say you can't wait to graduate and get a real job, take your time.

8. Tell people how you feel, you will regret it if you don't.

9. Coca-Cola really isn't as bad for you as people say.

10. Travel as much as you can and more.

11. Don't let anyone tell you, you can't do something.

12. DREAM BIG

Ending one chapter, starting a new one...

2011-06-12T19:12:00.000-05:00

“Laugh when you can, apologize when you should, and let go of what you can’t change. Life’s too short to be anything… but happy.” Anonymous

So much for that New Years Resolution..... But I am not giving up completely.

I went to Six Flags for Memorial Day... It made me feel like a kid again... I loved it.

P.S. I moved. Back to Missouri. Connecticut was fun but there is no place like home, right Dorothy?

Go Cyclones wait no go Stags No no Go Redhawks! The good thing about all of these, I don't have to change the colors in my wardrobe much. The common theme.. RED.

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.”– Helen Keller

So have you ever drove through 8 states in 2 days? What about over 15 hours in a day? Ok yes if you are a truck driver you win, but that's not me and this was my moving process. Surprisingly it wasn't bad at all. All thanks to Mrs. Tina Fey and her Audiobook. (if you haven't read/listened to it, let me know I will send you an audio copy, it's great!)

12 foot moving truck and approximately 3 tons of "stuff" moved into my apartment in less than 30 minutes, all thanks to my cousin who lives in my new town!

I actually should give even more thanks to my cousin cause if it wasn't for him my apartment wouldn't have furniture, a washer and dryer and might have exploded already. In appreciation I am taking him out for Margarita Madness on Wednesday. 99 cent Margs, who can pass that up??

Side note: New city is Cape Girardeau, approximately 90 miles from Poplar Bluff Missouri home of both my parents HS alma matar (many will know Poplar Bluff from Tyler Hansborough, yes same town) Ok now that we are on the same page, this is home to most of my family.. SCORE! Cape is also about 270 miles from my home town of Springfield, MO, much better than the 1250 miles I was only a month ago. Moral of the side note, its nice to be close to home!

“Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass…

It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.” — Vivian Greene

Another Sunrise, Another New Beginning.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

2011-05-22T21:19:00.001-05:00

What a week or two. Weddings. Tan lines. Airports, lots of airports. Baseball games. And most importantly life.

Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self-starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail.
-Og Mandino

"I don't know why I'm scared,

I've been here before,

Every feeling, every word,

I've imagined it all,

You'll never know if you never try,

To forgive your past and simply be mine..."

"The one and only" by Adele

"The first step... shall be to lose the way." -Galway Kinnell

2011-05-01T09:46:00.001-05:00

"Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive."

~Elbert Hubbard

My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers.

~Tom Stoppard

"Art is everywhere, except it has to pass through a creative mind." -Unknown

“Remembering you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
~ Steve Jobs

"God put us here, on this carnival ride. We close our eyes never knowing where it'll take us next."

— Carrie Underwood

“One has to live in the present. Whatever is past is gone beyond recall; whatever is future remains beyond one’s reach, until it becomes present. Remembering the past and giving thought to the future are important, but only to the extent that they help one deal with the present.” – S.N. Goenka

Easter, AA, and Rain

2011-04-30T12:11:00.000-05:00

"There are some things in life that we have no
control of, don't let those things pull you down.
And when you have a chance to control
things, take advantage!"

I was able to fly home for the Easter weekend and spend time with my family. I flew on American Airlines (So no the AA doesn't mean Alcoholics Anonymous) and oh what a trip it was. I flew out of New York's LGA on Thursday night (problem #1). There was bad weather in Arkansas and my layover was in Dallas (problem #2). The plane was absolutely full with a half tank of gas (problem #3, I wish I could say this was the end of the problems but its not.) With the bad weather and the half tank of gas, the pilot decided to make a stop in St. Louis to refuel (problem #4). At this point I knew I was going to miss my connecting flight in Dallas to get me home, and this all sounds crazy considering St. Louis is only 3 hours from my home and Dallas is 8 hours. I finally arrived in Dallas at 11pm, 30 minutes after my flight to Springfield left (problem #5). So in the end I had to spend the night in Dallas and fly home Friday morning. In the end it really wasn't that big of a deal and I have learned to not get upset over things you can't control which is exactly what this was.

Spending Easter at home is a new thing for me, I never had the opportunity to go home for Easter when I was in college and I can't think back far enough to my high school days for what we did. I love being able to go home and not feel rushed. I was able to spend all Friday in Branson shopping with my mom and Grandma, we even took Grandma to see a show. Although I am not sure she liked it so much. Saturday was grocery shopping day and cleaning day. I cleaned out and donated over 7 boxes of old clothes, and my mom still says I have too many clothes :). Sunday we went to Church and my mom cooked a huge Easter lunch. After lunch I went and visited some of my favorites, the Giddens, the Phillips and the Georges. I tagged along with them as we took all the little to see the movie "Hop". I wasn't a big fan of the movie but it was worth going to it to see all the kids, especially the newest addition little Elise Susanne. The only downfall of the whole weekend was that it rained, the whole time. The only good thing about all the rain is that my flight out of Springfield on Monday late afternoon was cancelled. So I got to spend an extra night at home which was definitely nice.

Impulso del momento...

2011-04-10T21:34:00.000-05:00

I love spur of the moment trips, especially when they deal with Casinos, Concerts and Kenny Chesney!! And that is precisely what my Saturday was full of. With a last minute decision to head up to Mohegan Sun in hopes there would be scalpers selling tickets for the Kenny Concert....

Well an hour later, I was 5 rows from Mr. Chesney himself....

And in the morning I'm leaving, making my way back to Cleveland
So tonight I hope that I will do just fine
And I don't see how you could ever be
Anything but mine

I can go out every night of the week

Can go home with anybody I meet

But it's just a temporary high 'cause when I close my eyes

I'm somewhere with you, somewhere with you

Somewhere with you

I'm somewhere with you

Somewhere with you

Spring is in the air...

2011-04-03T13:04:00.000-05:00

Do you ever feel like the ocean is trying to speak to you. With ever wave that rolls into the sand, no one wave sounding the same. With the stillness in-between each one and the ripples that go on for miles. The water of the ocean has seen many faces, traveled many miles and I'm sure their stories are endless...

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. ~Mark Twain

See everything; overlook a great deal; correct a little. ~Pope John XXIII

Midwest Love, Sculptures and Stitches

2011-04-02T11:47:00.000-05:00

Nothing's better than Hospital gowns and Family...

Although the Family part ranks a little higher...

The long and winding road
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
I've seen that road before
It always leads me here
Lead me to your door.

Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once a week. ~George Bernard Shaw

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. ~William Faulkner

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” - Steve Jobs

Finding Your Way Home

2011-03-16T17:39:00.000-05:00

"[The void] It's that place in our lives where what we've been hanging onto . . . clinging to for dear life . . . is stripped away. It's that place in us where we let go of what we know, what we think we know, and what we want and surrender to the unknown. It is the place of saying and meaning, 'I don't know.' It means standing there with our hands empty for a while, sometimes watching everything we wanted disappear; our self image, our definition of who we thought we should be, the clones we've created of ourselves, the people we thought we had to have, the things we thought were so important to collect and surround ourselves with, the job we were certain was ours, the place we thought we'd live in all our lives. . . Surrender control to the supreme wisdom and authority of God and to the Divine in your soul. Step into the void with courage. Learn to say, I don't know. That's not blind faith. It's pure faith that will allow God and your spirit to lead you wherever your soul wants and needs to go."

Melody Beattie, "Finding Your Way Home"

The Beach

2011-03-11T16:32:00.000-06:00

Well, you're a long walk from my street
And I'm dying in this summer heat
I hope like hell you're waiting, waiting

Everybody's living like they're crazy in love
I'm a dizzy mess, and everything is so above me
From the floor of any life I lead today

Well, they can take, take, take the kids from the summer
But they'll never, never, never take the summer from me
It was the very first time that I lost my mind for a week
They can make, make, make me forget the weather
If we'll never, never, never wash the sand from my feet
It was the very last time that we said goodbye to the beach
Showing off, showing off our teeth

So make one last call back home
Cause tonight we go in alone
And I hope that you know I'm waiting, waiting
(Summer, do you feel me?)

Everybody's singing like they're crazy in love
We made a dizzy mess of everything and it was enough
So bring all the boys and all the girls together

Well, they can take, take, take the kids from the summer
But they'll never, never, never take the summer from me
It was the very first time that I lost my mind for a week
They can make, make, make me forget the weather
If we'll never, never, never wash the sand from my feet
It was the very last time that we said goodbye to the beach
Showing off, showing off our teeth

You're going out in style
And I'm getting tired of all your lying
(Summer, do you feel me?)
Stop pretending
Stop, the answer's in the smile
And I'm coming clean
(Summer, do you feel me?)
Just give me something
(Summer, do you feel me?)
Stop pretending

Well, they can take, take, take the kids from the summer
But they'll never, never, never take the summer from me
It was the very first time that I lost my mind for a week
They can make, make, make me forget the weather
If we'll never, never, never wash the sand from my feet
It was the very last time that we said goodbye to the beach
Showing off, showing off our teeth

-"The Beach" by All Time Low

She'd be 37 today...

2011-03-08T05:30:00.001-06:00

Just 2 years ago she came to Iowa State on my birthday to watch me play...

And only 8 months ago I carried her out...

Today I will celebrate her Birthday for her.

Happy Birthday Coach!

I miss you so much...

"Weave in faith and God will find the thread."

2011-03-06T20:58:00.002-06:00

“

"It’s hard for me to put into words why I like the beach so much.

Everything about it is renewing for me, almost like therapy... Beach Therapy."
- Amy Dykens

The Extra Degree

2011-03-02T21:43:00.000-06:00

It was about this time when we knew it was coming. We were waiting to be called into the locker room, the film screened pulled down, and this video put in...

IF that doesn't get your blood flowing, put a fire in your stomach, then you shouldn't be part of College Athletics during March. This is what its all about. March is here, turn up the heat, give that extra degree. Don't relax.

"picture" my week...

2011-02-27T21:54:00.000-06:00

Laughter is the best medicine

2011-02-25T19:11:00.000-06:00

Brother Keith did an absolute wonderful job with the funeral service. From the first time I met him I knew I'd like him and he'd do a great job. For him to come out to the house Tuesday night and sit and listen for over an hour to all our stories about grandpa. To walking around at visitation for over 3 hours talking to everyone to find more stories he hadn't heard. He even came up to the hospital in the morning before the funeral to be with Steven. He was everywhere. It was at visitation that I sat down with Brother Keith one on one. I told him how amazing my grandpa was and he quickly had a story to share with me. He told me this... "there wasn't a person in this town that didn't know about you. He talked about you to anyone who would listen. If you were playing on tv, he called everyone. He would get newspaper articles about you and hang them on the church bulletin board. He was so proud of you and I hope you know that." of course after I wiped away all the tears I told him thank you.

This week was hard, but in the middle of it all we had our laughs. Grandma usually provided them but anytime we could get her laughing we did. Here are just a few examples...

Scenario 1: My moms jewelry is laying on the Kitchen table grandma walks in while mom is doing the dishes and says "well heathers necklace and earrings sure are pretty, we should just take them from her" my mom replies with "No mom those are mine and you can't steal them." Grandma giggles.

Scenario 2: My mom gets a condolences gift from a friend. Grandma finds it and talks about how pretty is it and then asks if she can have it my moms says "no mom that's what Debbie got me to remember dad." Grandma continues to talk about how pretty it is and then asks again if she can have it. My mom replies again "well mom how about we share it?" grandma says oh yes that would be lovely. And then once again tells us all how pretty it is. She turns to my mom and asks where she got it. Mom replies "Debbie got it for me to remember dad" grandma says oh well isn't that nice, can I have it? Finally my mom says yes, and grandma says well it's just so pretty I want to put it up somewhere I can look at it everyday. I am sure this scenario will start all over again in the next day or so.

Scenario 3: My mom and grandma are in the bedroom getting dressed. Grandma has to put pantyhose on and mom has to help her, this is a 30 minute ordeal. Once they get grandma all dressed she comes out. We tell her how pretty she is and then ask about her pantyhose she looks down lifts up her skirt a little and says "well I didn't even know I had them on"

Scenario 4: My uncle goes into the hospital after visitation we don't tell grandma until the morning. She understands but for the rest of the day she tells us Lloyd is in the hospital. We tell her no it's Steven. She says oh well I need to go see him. So we take her after the funeral to see him. The rest of the evening she tells us Lloyd is in the hospital. We tell her no it's Steven she says oh well I better go see him...

Scenario 5: Grandma has a cup of coffee while sitting in her rocking chair. She spills it all over her mid region. No big deal but she doesn't want to change clothes so ok we aren't going to fight her. She then wants to take a nap so we go put her down for one. An hour later we are sitting in the kitchen and her she walks in. Looking a little confused we ask her if she's sleep walking she says "well I just might be" we laugh she laughs, confusion gone. She then feels her oversized flannel shirt and tells us it's wet while looking down at her pants and seeing they are wet to, confusion is back. We quickly remind her that she spilled her coffee but then ask her if she thought she might have peed her pants she replies while giggling well I just wasnt sure.

Scenario 6: We are telling stories about the past and I remind grandma about the time she whipped me with her brush. I told her it was when I was little and I think Kyle and I were fighting. She looks up at me with the cutest face and says well I'm sorry I didn't mean to do that and gives me a hug.

Hate is a strong word...

2011-02-23T13:27:00.000-06:00

I Hate Cancer. Just this past Saturday we had our "Think Pink" game in Support of Breast Cancer Awareness. There was this cute elderly lady that is Cancer Survivor who was our honorary coach for the game. She is Lucky. She beat the devil, she beat cancer, and she can Live to tell about it. More often than not, this is not the case, which is why once again I will say, I Hate cancer. As I talked with this lady, a thousand Miles Away, someone wasn't as lucky as her. Robert Cosby, most affectionally known as My Grandpa was taking his last breaths before walking with Jesus. Like many, we know he is Better off, he has no more pain, and he has Eternal Life with the Lord Jesus Christ!

RIP Grandpa
Love you

"Let us love the world to peace."

2011-02-19T21:42:00.001-06:00

"We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate--- thereby making the present comfortable and the future promising."

-Maya Angelou

Birthday Fun Day

2011-02-15T18:57:00.000-06:00

All weekend I was checking the weather for today, to see if I would be able to enjoy the outdoors or have to stay inside. The forecast called for overcast, cold, and a chance of snow flurries. Well weather man, you tried to ruin my birthday but it didn't work. I woke up this morning to the sunlight beaming in through my window. I went outside to to a beautiful sun shining down and not a cloud in the sky.

I thank her for that.

I enjoyed my free coffee at Starbucks and caught up on my internet addictions. From ESPN to CNN, to Twitter and Facebook. Which reminds me, I never knew I had that many friends that cared to write on my Facebook wall for my birthday, I am very honored.

I thank you all for that.

I did some office work and I ran my typical errands; Walmart, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, DSW, (you get the idea). I was pleasantly surprised with myself when I spent a combined 20 dollars at all those places.

I thank my inner self control for that.

With Valentine's Day, I have seen numerous commercials for those "edible arrangements" and I always thought they looked delicious. Well to my surprise there was one delivered to my apartment this afternoon. As you can see below it looks absolutely amazing and I can't wait to dig into it.

I thank my Mom for that.

Finally, I stumbled upon this breath taking view this evening. With the sun setting, still not a cloud in the sky and most of the snow on the beach melted away, it was absolutely beautiful. Watching the sun fall into the horizon, the waves of the ocean gently roll into the beach, and the birds quietly chirping away, there was a moment I knew I wasn't alone. My family, my friends, they were there, in my heart they were there. There was also someone else, with what felt like a hand on my shoulder, saying Happy Birthday and letting me know she was doing well.

I thank God for that...

"Love is..."

2011-02-14T12:39:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day

February

2011-02-11T18:17:00.000-06:00

Maybe I am biased but I definitely think February is one of the best months there is. Its unique, with only 28 and occasionally having 29 days, its an individual. I think that goes the same for people who are born in February, they are unique. Think of all the great people who were born in February, Abe Lincoln, Jennifer Aniston, Johnny Cash, Babe Ruth, Chris Farley, Michael Jordan, Heather Ezell, George Washington, Garth Brooks, Brittany MacFarlane, Ansel Adams.... the list could go on. Not to mention Valentine's Day is in February, who doesn't love Vday chocolates and flowers, this lady is sold! Finally, this is the time where College Basketball because intense. Every game counts, every possession could be a trip to the NCAA tournament or a ticket home for Spring Break. This is the time great teams are separated from good teams. This is where you find out who really wants it. Who is going to pay attention to the details and who is going say "I'll get it next time". Now I won't lie nothing compares to March Madness but the February Frenzy comes pretty close.

Week and then some in Review...

2011-02-08T20:56:00.001-06:00

Continued my Caffiene addiction... I believe its worse than ever.

"People who have never had an addiction don't understand how hard it can be." -Payne Stewart

Explored the Raleigh-Durham Airport.

"In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration." -Ansel Adams

The stairs at NC State leading up to the court. I loved it but there was one word missing... Communication!

"Communication is the real work of leadership."

-Nitin Nohria

I spent Super Bowl Sunday at Applebees drinking out of a bendy straw and watching the game.

"I'm going to Disney World!"

-Aaron Rodgers

I was surprised when I was sitting in my office and found the Iowa State vs. Oklahoma game on TV up here. Right before practice I got to watch Kelsey and Debbie's halftime special!

Kelsey Bolte for All-American!

Got some shots up on Kay Yow's court at NC State.

"I feel like I had zero control over getting cancer, but I have 100 percent control over how I will respond to dealing with cancer." -Kay Yow

This was me playing with my iPhone for endless hours and taking random pictures. One of my favorites signs is this one, my roommate and I in college ~~found~~ this sign one night.

"Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted." -John Lennon

Just a little coffee shop in North Carolina.

"Enjoy Life Wide Open." -Larry's Beans

Lastly, I enjoyed some ME time...

"Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time--God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen." 1 Timothy 6:12-16

Manic Monday

2011-02-07T14:19:00.000-06:00

My title doesn't really explain my day but I still saw it fitting. Today was a day off, and after yesterday's Super Bowl Sunday Funday activities it was a much needed day off.

After our game yesterday I called around to see what local places were having specials for the big game. After a very rude conversations with a restaurant that I will not name ~~Chilis~~, I called Applebees to find out they were having all kinds of deals! So I went there and spent almost 3 hours sitting at the bar watching the game. The best part was talking to this sweet couple that sat down next to me. After a couple ice breaker questions, I found out they had just moved here from St. Louis, who would have thought. I swear it really is a small world. In the end I was very happy to see the Green Bay Packers win the Super Bowl but I wasn't very happy with the commercials this year. I did have a favorite though...

As of today, I slept in until almost 10:30, which is a big accomplishment for me. I usually can't sleep in past 9:30. I will give credit to the busy day I was part of yesterday, along with the Super Bowl activities. After sleeping in I went to the Post Office to pick up an AMAZING package and drop of a couple pieces of mail. Then it was off to Starbucks and AT&T. I picked up my typical iced coffee then walked over to at&t to purchase my new iPhone. Since my birthday is coming up I thought I would treat myself to a new phone. Happy early Birthday to me! So needless to say the rest of my day was shot, as I have spent a majority of it setting up the new phone and downloading new apps. I have been so preoccupied with the phone I have forgotten to eat breakfast and lunch. It might be time to eat, especially after that noise my stomach just made, it thinks its time to eat as well.

The purpose of life is a life of purpose...

2011-02-04T12:25:00.000-06:00

"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit."

-E.E. Cummings

It happened...

2011-02-02T22:05:00.000-06:00

It finally happened, I let 3 days go by without blogging. How could I let this happen. Ah yes I now remember, it was the lack of down time combined with 70 degree weather. On Monday we traveled down to Raleigh, North Carolina to play a make up game against NC State. We left 20 degree weather and arrived to NC for 60 degree weather. It was absolutely beautiful and I didn't want to leave. Although the outcome of the game didn't go our way it was a great experience for our players (and even for me, yes I still act like a college kid sometimes). To play on Kay Yow's court and be inside that building that is full of tradition was a great experience. The day of the game it was about 50 degrees out and I put in a lovely run outside in downtown Raleigh. It was the best run I have had in awhile, mainly because I got to run outside. The one thing I learned from this trip was today, when we flew back to CT and then practiced a few hours after we got back... I am not as young as I use to be and flying and trying to practice on the same day don't work well with my body. Especially my hips and knees, I needed an ice bath more than our players did after practice. And with that, its time for another round of icing and some tylenol pm.

Killing time in the airport

Kay Yow Court

Week in Review...

2011-01-30T19:49:00.001-06:00

1. I almost ate a whole bag of the new Pretzel M&Ms, they are so addicting.

"They melt in your mouth, not in your hands"

2. Who doesn't love a Sloppy Joe...

3. Next to "My" Starbucks, a Chipotle is going in!

4. I cracked a frozen egg.

5. I almost broke this heel while walking

6. Drove through another Winter Wonderland.

Another 16 inches

7. Today, she was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. A much deserved Honor, I just wish she was here to accept it. I wish she was here to give the "Thank you" speech and I wish she was here so I could call her and tell her Congratulations.

Stephanie Thurman Phillips
2011 Missouri Sports Hall of Fame Inductee

Temptations on Main

2011-01-28T11:05:00.000-06:00

If you live in Ames, Iowa and you have never been to Temptations on Main.... GO!!!! Some of the BEST chocolate, fudge, truffles you will find anywhere! Aside from that, some of the best people you will find anywhere! Everytime I am in Ames I stop by their store and fill up on my favorite chocolates. Even after I moved out to the East Coast, I am able to order chocolates which they ship directly to me! It doesn't get much better than that when you get to your mail box! So for those of you who have been to Temptations, go get yourself a treat and if you have never been, then I urge you to give them a try. Trust me you will not be disappointed!!

Family...

2011-01-27T13:26:00.000-06:00

I love my family. My parents, my brother, my grandparents and my extended family. I also love my Iowa State family. I enjoyed every day, every minute, every second of my time at Iowa State and if I had the opportunity to do it all over again, I would. In a heart beat I would do it all again and not change a thing. Like I mentioned in a previous post we were a "Family", the players, the coaches, our families, and of course the fans. We were all a Family (a group of people who share common beliefs and/or activities). My teammates were like my sisters, we had each others back. We stuck together through thick and thin, through the fun times and most importantly through the rough ones. It was the Iowa State family that I loved just as much as my own. It was the Iowa State family that I loved being a part of for 4 years and will continue to be a part of for the rest of my life. Like we have always said, "Once a Cyclones, Always a Cyclone".

I am amazed at how the word "Family" can be deceived to a negative term. I am amazed how people in society will find any reason, any excuse, for people to feel sorry for them. For people to think they have been mistreated. And for people to make comments from behind closed door and not show their face. Stand up for yourself and what you believe in. If you have something to say come out and say it, stop hiding behind anonymous.

Family: Two or more people who share goals and values, have long-term commitments to one another, and reside usually in the same dwelling place.

Family: A group of people who are generally not blood relations but who share common attitudes, interests, and/or goals.

Enough said.....

Introducing Miss Patches...

2011-01-26T11:42:00.000-06:00

Can you ship animals across the country? Like a cat? I really miss having my kitty, Miss Patches, living with me. A few years ago my parents took over custody of Miss Patches, not because I was an unfit parent but because of the lifestyle I was living. I was traveling ALL the time and Patches was getting lonely without me. Especially after I spent 8 months in Iceland I felt like she barely knew who I was. I wish I could regain custody of her and bring her out to Connecticut. I think she would like it here. I have the perfect window seal for her to sit in.

Miss Patches at about 5 weeks, on her first car ride to Ames.

Miss Patches in my Ames apartment, loving life.

Miss Patches showing off her hot bod.

An afternoon in pictures...

2011-01-24T15:05:00.000-06:00

Week in Review

2011-01-23T09:48:00.000-06:00

1. Spent an afternoon at the Beach

2. Enjoyed Martini night at the Sushi place

3. Got the BEST PACKAGE EVER from my bff Kelsey Lynn

4. Got an early Birthday card with a bunch of coupons!

5. Took a fat kid night

6. Ate more of the batter than the actual cookies

7. Spent countless hours ~~working~~ in my office

Amor

2011-01-22T09:58:00.000-06:00

Maybe its just me but I think if we remove negativity from our lives and love one another we will be happier. And if we are happier and we laugh on a daily basis we will live longer. We will not stress as much, we will not need so much help to get through days. The amount of drugs/medicine/alcohol that is in circulation in this world will decrease. Maybe I am crazy for thinking this way. Maybe I am the one that need the drugs but I just think if we change our outlook on life and think more positive we will be more success and we will be happier. I truly believe it is that easy...

Missing her...

2011-01-20T20:28:00.000-06:00

I think about her everyday, but today more than usual.

I miss her everyday, but more today than others.

I smile when her face crosses my mind, but I cry when I can hear her voice.

She had the ability to light up a room just with her presence

and it lights up my heart when I think of the legacy she left.

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you"

Philippians 1:3

"Dreams are free therapy."

2011-01-19T21:46:00.001-06:00

As a child I remembered dreaming of hitting the winning shot in the final four. I also remember dreaming of winning a million dollars. In my dreams I always won. I think that is why I felt confident in my everyday life. In anything I took on in life, I had confidence that I would win and be successful. Some people can call that cocky, but having confidence in your self is the first step in success. If you do not have confidence in yourself, who will? So set goals and dream of achieving those goals.

"That which the dream shows is the shadow of such wisdom as exists in man, even if during his waking state he may know nothing about it... We do not know it because we are fooling away our time with outward and perishing things, and are asleep in regard to that which is real within ourself."

~Paracelsus

Running...

2011-01-18T20:31:00.000-06:00

My new past time is running. Like I mentioned earlier, who would have thought, me, running, by choice, but I am! I have found a new desire for it, a new enjoyment from it, and a new perspective about it. Its not only a chance to relax, let off the stress of the days work but a chance to think over the day. I especially like to run when I am stressed, when I need to blow off steam. I sometimes talk to myself while I run which I am sure scares the people next to me. But who am I to care, out here on the East Coast nobody knows me :)! Running has also been relaxing to me, which I never thought would be possible. It calms me down, I have tried to make a routine of going to the gym and putting in a couple miles at night. It makes it easier to go to sleep at night, clears my mind.
If only I would have had this mindset in college, ya know during preseason, when running was the last thing I wanted to do. When the 5:30 am alarm went off and I dreaded the look of my running shoes and the smell of the indoor track. Now I like it, well not so much the smell but the look of an open trail, an empty treadmill or during the summer an untouched sandy beach. I can't wait for spring to get here when I can start running outside again, especially running on the beach, definitely one of my favorites. I would like to run a half marathon sometime in the near future. I don't think I am even close to ready for it but maybe after a few more dates with the treadmill I will be ready. That is if this new past time doesn't wear off.

A day off...

2011-01-17T22:37:00.001-06:00

Finally a day off, a much needed day off. Out of the office and catching up on all the little things. Well first I should say Happy MLK Day! What an AMAZING man and what he did for this country will never go without appreciation!

I told myself last night as I laid down in bed that I wasn't going to set an alarm and I didn't care how long I slept. Well thanks inner clock/alarm for the 8am wake up. I forced myself to lay in bed till about 9:30 when I finally rolled out of bed. Walked straight to the coffee maker (Thanks Mom!) and made the biggest cup of liquid caffeine! I then proceeded to get dressed and head to the Mall! I mean what else do you do at 10am on a Monday off work?!?!? I walked the entire Mall, in and out of almost every store only to decide I really don't NEED anything :). Of course my mind thinks like this "Well since you didn't find anything at the mall to buy, lets go to TJ Maxx cause you can always find something there!" So thats precisely what I did and of course ended up spending a ~~little~~ bit of money. I mean who doesn't need a "ChopGenie"??? After my TJ Maxx trip I swooped by the grocery store and then quickly home to use this new ChopGenie! I made a lovely bowl of homemade guacamole that I quickly demolished half of for lunch...

I spent a majority of the rest of the day relaxing and watching the College Basketball marathon on ESPN. What great games, although I would have liked to see Villanova win and not Uconn! I also spent about an hour, I would have stayed longer but I would have turned into an icecube, at the beach. Yeah you heard me right, the beach, looking at the beautiful ocean. Which who would have thought the beach and ocean are just as pretty during the winter with snow than in the summer?! Have a look for yourself and let me know what you think....

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Indecisive...

2011-01-16T19:01:00.002-06:00

"Indecision becomes decision with time."

Everyday we are faced with tough decisions, or what we think are tough decisions. This morning for me it was whether to get a hot coffee or an iced coffee, as you can see, I went with both. This is not always possible, to get both, something you have to make a choice. On many occasions our tough decisions are not about coffee but something much more life impacting. Remember to take your time, think it through and make the decision for yourself. Don't let someone else make it for you, and believe in your decisions 100%.

"You've got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you're not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.
~Steven D. Woodhull"

Week in Review...

2011-01-15T12:00:00.000-06:00

1. I watched my husband (Peyton Manning) play against the Jets...

2. I did a lot of scouting work for our upcoming games...

3. Knocked two more gyms off my list of College Arenas I have been to (this is from Siena)...

4. Prepared for the BIG snow storm that was coming by going to the grocery store and stocking up...

5. Left notes around my apartment so I wouldn't forget things (pillow for 5 hour bus trip)...

6. Did more loads of laundry than I can count...

7. Worked on my artistic skills (a turtle and a greyhound)...

Everything's Nothing

2011-01-14T19:58:00.000-06:00

It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop. ~Vita Sackville-West

It was hard for me to write today, nothing popped into my mind that I could put to paper or a computer screen. Not that I want to be a writer, but I enjoy blogging. And I know if I skip one day, it will soon turn into two days then five and so forth. In turn this New Years Resolution would be flushed down the toilet like 80% of many others. So I am pushing through and writing. About nothing, about everything, about whatever pops into my head at this moment in time. Which currently is, Baby Giraffes. This past summer I went to the Zoo in hopes to see a baby Giraffe. (Side not: I had heard a commercial about the zoo having baby animals. In the same commercial they talked about Saturday being Feed the Giraffe day at the Zoo.) So somewhere in my mass chaos head I put together baby animals and giraffes. So I traveled down to the Zoo on a lovely Saturday afternoon to see this little gift from God to Nature. I was SO excited only to find out there wasn't a baby Giraffe, nor was there Hippos but that's not the point. I did get to feed an adult Giraffe, a piece of lettuce. Talk about exhilarating, have you ever seen a Giraffe's tongue? WOW. So to make a long story short, one of my new favorite animals is a baby giraffe.

"iLive, iLaugh, iLove"

"Cherish the Moment"

2011-01-13T14:04:00.002-06:00

I miss college. I miss living in a college town and I miss playing basketball at Iowa State. The friends I made are some I know will be part of my life forever. My teammates, who are more like my sisters will always be a phone call away. The other day I was thinking about all the memories I made, the nights in hotel rooms, study hall hours, bus trips, plane rides, inside jokes, etc. I will cherish those memories forever.

When I was playing Coach Fennelly always told us to cherish every moment we got with our teammates, every game in Hilton with the best fans in the country, every chance we got to represent Iowa State University. He told us this cause he has seen it happen so many times, how fast your 4 years fly by and how much you miss it. No matter how many times he told us, no matter how hard I tried, I will always miss it. I will always wish for just one more chance, to put the Iowa State #15 jersey on and walk out of the locker room at Hilton with those teammates. To hear one more pregame speech, to put my hand over my heart for another National Anthem, and to leave everything I had on the court at Hilton.

I text often with my former teammates and never once do we not talk about some memory from college. On multiple occasions I will text or get a text from a teammate who just watched a highlight video, or a game. At the end of every conversation we always say, "I'd give anything to be back in college playing together". Unfortunately its something we can never do again, but something we will always have are the memories. I always say that someone should write a book about our years in college, but the only problem is half the book would be inside jokes that no one else would understand. But thats the best part, those memories off the court, in the lockerroom that we shared together.. those are the ones I will Cherish!

“Time is a companion who reminds us to cherish every moment because it will never come again .”

"No its not, where's the snow"

2011-01-12T11:41:00.000-06:00

Another huge snow storm hit the New England Area. In Milford they are saying we got around 20 inches of snow. I looked out my window at 8:15 this morning and I could barely see my car and it was still snowing very hard. Finally it stopped around 10, at that time I went out and started cleaning off and around my car. Unfortunately the plow hasn't been back through the parking lot, it came at 3am. It needs to come back soon!

8:15am

11:30am

Smile

2011-01-11T22:18:00.001-06:00

A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.
~Author Unknown

BCS Championship Game...

2011-01-10T21:51:00.001-06:00

GO DUCKS.... Quack Quack

I am not a Chizik fan. This picture is curiosity of Iowa State University. If you didn't know Gene Chizik was the FB coach at ISU for 2 years. During that time he won 4 games and ran our athletic department 5 mil in the red... Thanks alot Genie.

So once again GO DUCKS!!!!

Happy Birthday Levi Wade

2011-01-09T19:42:00.000-06:00

Today this little man turns 4. I wish his mom was here to see how big he's gotten, how smart he is, and especially how much he is like her. He has her smile, he has her heart, he reminds me of her so much. In the near future he will break many girls hearts, I mean look at the body....

Coloring outside the lines is a fine art...

2011-01-09T16:24:00.000-06:00

"Carpe Diem"

I love watching Sportscenter in the morning, but I don't watch it often.
I don't enjoy watching the Today Show in the morning, but I sometimes do.

I love Black and White Mochas from Starbucks.
I don't like that they cost $5.26, that will make me poor.

I am not a huge fan of buying 2 liters of Coca-Cola.
I have been buying a lot of them lately cause the price of Coke has soared!

I love sitting in my office listening to Pandora, mainly channels that include "The Fray, Greg Laswell and Rascal Flatts".
But since when is there a limit to the number of hours you can listen in a month?!

I hate dealing with car problems, oil changes, dead batteries or flat tires.
I dealt with a flat tire 3 times in one day, the only positive about this was finding out that the air is free in Connecticut! I think every state should be like that.

When I have a bad day I think about people who are homeless, starving or unloved.
All of a sudden my bad day doesn't seem to bad at all.

I try and live everyday to the fullest. I don't want to look back and say "What if?"
When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me." ~Erma Bombeck

Week in Review...

2011-01-08T17:31:00.000-06:00

1. I went out and celebrated on New Years Eve...

2. I rode on a bus for over 20 hours, not all at once but there was a 7 hour trip and a 10 hour trip.

3. Went to the Casino, stayed for 2 hours, lost 2 dollars....

4. Slept 3 nights in a hotel bed, with 7 pillows, my body loved it...

5. Ate dessert that I later had to spend over 40 minutes running off on the treadmill...

6. Marked seeing the Niagara Falls off my bucket list...

7. Finally, sat in on a "Town Hall Meeting" (whatever that means)...

Addiction

2011-01-07T10:58:00.000-06:00

Caffeine is my shepherd; I shall not doze.
It maketh me to wake in green pastures:

It leadeth me beyond the sleeping masses.

It restoreth my buzz:

It leadeth me in the paths of consciousness for its name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of addiction,

I will fear no Equal:

For thou art with me; thy cream and thy sugar they comfort me.

Thou preparest a carafe before me in the presence of The Starbucks:

Thou anointest my day with pep; my mug runneth over.

Surely richness and taste shall follow me all the days of my life:

And I will dwell in the House of Mochas forever.

~Author Unknown

I am addicted to Caffeine although I won't admit it. Wait did I just admit it? I use to say no, I am just addicted to the taste of Coca-Cola not the caffeine in it. I would say this because I can drink a Coke right before bed and not have any trouble in falling asleep. Which is true but still doesn't make me not addicted to Caffeine. I can tell when I go without it, I get those headaches or I become the grouch. I have figured out that its Caffeine because of my new addiction to Starbucks. I NEED MY STARBUCKS. Every morning on the way to work I stop, the lovely barista know my name and my favorite drink. If I didn't change my mind every other day between Hot or Cold they would have my drink already made. It's the start to my day and later followed with a Coca-Cola for lunch...

Step 1: Admittance...

"I Heather Ezell am addicted to ~~um Ca, no Caff,~~ fine Caffeine."

No Words...

2011-01-06T21:40:00.000-06:00

1. Growing up I loved Walt Disney movies. The VHS movies in the thick plastic cases, you know what I am talking about. I think Mr. Disney was a true mastermind. The characters, the phrases and meaning behind the movies goes way beyond what it seemed...

"You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality." -Walt Disney

2. Although Cinderella was not my favorite movie as a child I think its message is one of the greatest.

A dream is a wish your heart makes when you're fast asleep. In dreams you will lose your heartaches. Whatever you wish for, you keep. Have faith in your dreams, and someday, your rainbow will come smiling through.No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dreams that you wish will come true.

-Cinderella

3. There is no doubt Land Before Time was one of my all time favorite movies. From Little Foot to Ducky, there is not a character in that movie that I didn't love.

Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely. - The Land Before Time

4. You can't tell me that when you watched Peter Pan you didn't wish you could find some fairy dust and fly. Or if you thought of that happy thought long enough you would rise off the ground. But in the movie I think Peter Pan said it best with this...

All it takes is Faith and Trust - Peter Pan

5. P.S. Pixar is taking over the animation world...

It's because I like you, I don't want to be with you. It's a complicated emotion.

-Finding Nemo

6. Although I learned many things from Disney Movies, I think I learned the most from the main man himself.. Winnie the Pooh, and Tigger too :).

A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.

-- Pooh's Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

Cinderella????

What's normal?

2011-01-05T08:23:00.000-06:00

I have been battling this issue for awhile now. And in this world of judgement, teasing and bullying I think its a topic that should be discussed. I love the efforts of society to try and remove words such as retard and gay and fag from our vocabulary.

I feel the same way about the word normal. What's normal? who decides what's normal? From putting ketchup on french fries to wearing socks with shoes who decides it's normal. I find myself keying to this word in conversations and text often. Many times I will stop and ask "How's that normal?". It's a hard question to answer but what I have found even harder is finding a replacement word for normal just because it is cemented into our everyday life. I have made a conscience effort of not using the word and honestly I can't remember the last time I did. I won't lie, it does slip out every once in awhile but I usually catch it. I just think too many kids, teenagers and even adults fight every day for normalcy in their lives, even if they don't know why its normal or agree with it. From athletes to musicians, country to city, gay to straight, conventional to non-conventional, no one is normal, we are all different and no one person is perfect. God made us the way we are for a reason, we have a path, our own path, that we get to paint it the way we want to. So enjoy it, use all the colors and don't worry that your path doesn't look like the one next to you.

Own it, Love it, Be Proud of it.

"I think of life itself now as a wonderful play that I've written for myself, and so my purpose is to have the utmost fun playing my part." ~Shirley MacLaine

Adversity

2011-01-04T10:42:00.000-06:00

Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5).

On July 10th I ran my first 5k of my life. Its a new thing I have gotten into, running, for no reason, just running. I know who would have thought I would actually do something like this. This coming from someone who only participated in like 1.5 summers of preseason workouts, out of 4. But something in me changed and now I actually enjoy it, I make time for dates with the treadmill in the evenings. But back to July 10th, I was so proud of myself for signing up for this 5k, but this day will not be remembered for that for me. Instead its one of the saddest days of my young life....

5 days later I tweeted after the funeral "It will go down that I carried you, but you have always carried me". I was a pallbearer for my high school coaches funeral, it was an absolute honor but definitely not easy. I think about her often especially after getting this coaching job. I can't count how many times I have wanted to pick up the phone and call her for advice. I know she is watching over all of us, walking with the Lord and teaching the Angels how to play defense. I miss her, we all miss her but she is still with us everyday. Not that I need a reminder of her, but more just in memory of her, I got another tattoo. A blue cancer ribbon with the Jimmy V quote "Don't give up, don't ever give up." She never gave up, she won... STEPH WON.

During my Christmas break at home I had the opportunity to spend Christmas Eve at the Phillips house with the boys and the Giddens. The boys remind me of her, their mannerisms and some of the things they say. She would be proud of them, I am proud of them. I got to help the boys put out the Reindeer food and get the milk and cookies ready for Santa. But my favorite part came after all that when I was laying in theirs bed trying to get them to go to sleep so Santa could come. Its a memory I will cherish forever.

New Years Resolution

2011-01-03T22:31:00.000-06:00

I know everyone makes New Years resolutions and with 12 days these resolutions are over. If its a diet, a workout regiment or some how living a better life, we focus so hard for a few days and then it soon slips away. Well I have a couple of resolutions, one is to cut out negativity in my life and another is to get back to blogging. I am hoping both become a habit and not just a 12 day fad.

I want this blog to be different than what it use to be for me. I want it to be more about my life outside of basketball, off the court and out of the office. Now I am sure there will be a post or two or ten about basketball, I mean its been my life for almost 24 years now so how can I not talk about it. But I am going more for the other stuff.

I am living in Milford, CT and working in Fairfield, CT, a 20 minutes commute on a good day. I never would have imagined that I would be driving to work fight the morning traffic to New York City, but I am. I don't mind it at all actually, the 20 minutes is good thinking time for me. I have been living here for a little over 4 months now, and so far so good. I really enjoyed the month of warm weather I got to enjoy as I went the beach on an almost daily occurrence. Now the winter has set in and as seen on CNN the blizzard of 2010 is still being dealt with and I am sure there are more of them to come.

As I put an end to the first post of the new year, I would like to say 2010 had its up and down. I found, lost, and found my way again and I believe I am on the right path. At least for the time being.

Better late than never??

2010-01-26T19:05:00.000-06:00

Yes I know I haven't updated since before Christmas and I am sorry for this. You ask why? Well its been a busy past few weeks. Since getting back to Iceland we have had 4 games (3 away and 1 at home) and I have taken over coaching an 8th grade girls team. The 8th grade team practices 4 times a week, which keeps me pretty busy. I am usually running from my practice to theirs every evening.

So to go back a few weeks...

I got back to Iceland on January 6th after spending about 20 days at home. My time at home went by way to fast but it was great to spend some quality time with my family and friends. My travels back to Iceland went as smooth as possible even with all the new international flight rules and extra security. I got back to Iceland at about 7am on the 6th. My plan was to go to my apartment and take a nap for a few hours and then get up and run a few errands before I went to practice. Well that plan didn't go so well when I completely slept through my alarm and didn't wake up till almost 5pm and had practice at 6. Lets just say I was lucky to wake up as I could have easily slept right through practice. Since then I have adjusted a little bit back to the time change but still not going to bed before about 2am. The good thing is I don't have to get up early and I usually sleep till about 10:45, so its really not to bad.

Like I mentioned earlier we have played 4 games since being back. We won the first game against Valur by about 20 points and I finished the game with a quadruple double. I had 25 points, 15 rebounds, 11 assists and 10 steals. The next game was against Njardvik, who had beat us earlier in OT, we won this game by almost 30! I finished the game with a triple double and had a first of my career by scoring 40 points. I also had 10 rebounds and 13 assists. After that we played away at Snaefell, which is a 3 hour bus drive and a trip I have been on too many times already. Lets just say its not one of my favorites places to travel to. But either way we were still able to pull out a 20 point win. Once again I finished the game with a triple double. To finish out the 4 games we traveled to Keflavik who we lost to earlier in the season by one. Lets just say this was our worst game of the 4 and we ended up losing. Our next game is tomorrow (Wednesday) and then we play again on Sunday in the Subway Cup semifinals.

In other news we added another player to our roster, she is from Denmark but played College basketball in the States at Dayton University. This has been a really nice addition to our team and I have really enjoyed playing with her.

Well that's an update on the Basketball aspect since I have been back in Iceland. I will post another update shortly with everything else that has been going on. I will leave you with a few pictures of the recent games...

Until next time have a great day and take care!

Welcoming the new player (Kiki Lund)

40 point game..

I got my bags packed..

2009-12-14T17:18:00.000-06:00

The countdown is down to 65 hours, less than 3 days, and about 3,900 minutes! My bags are packed and waiting by the door. Before I leave I do have some unfinished business to take care of. We have a game on Wednesday against Hamar. A team we lost to over a month ago by 1 on a last second play. So it's going to be a pretty tough game and would be nice to get a win before the Holiday break!

I had a pretty fun and exciting weekend, starting with the All-Star game on Saturday. The game was at 1pm and all the Americans that were playing in the game were joking that it was only like 7am back home, so it was too early to play haha. Even with the earliness of the game, we still had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the team I was on and I think we all had fun playing with each other! During half time of the game was a 3-point contest. Unfortunately after I had a great first round (16 out of 20), my second round of the contest wasn't so great, Oh well! During the second half of the All-Star I tried to make it a little more fun by attempting behind the back passes and such. Thank goodness my team had about a 20 point lead so when some of those passes didn't work out to well it wasn't a big deal. In the end, my team won 103-85 and I was awarded the MVP with 29 points, 13 boards and 10 assists. After the game I was informed that the person who makes the basket to break the 100 point mark is suppose to by a case for the team. Well I was that person who hit this basket and although I was all for buying the case they said I didn't have to since it was the All-Star game. I guess I lucked out even though I totally would have done it!

After the All-Star game I stayed around the gym to watch the Men's game before heading home to get a much needed nap before the evening festivities. Most of the American players got together on Saturday night and had a semi American party to celebrate the all-star weekend as well as our last weekend in Iceland before heading home for the Holidays! Needless to say it was a good thing we had Sunday off!

As for this week I am just trying to get everything taken care of before I leave on Thursday. Like I said I have my bags packed and everything like that. But I have a few other things to get done before I leave. Like I need to eat or get rid of some of the food in my fridge as I can't leave it in there for 3 weeks without it going bad. I also need to catch up on all my laundry so I don't leave any dirty clothes behind. Good news is my new Visa came in the mail so I don't have to worry about that anymore! Other than those things just a few little things here and there I need to get done that will hopefully allow the 65 hours to pass by faster! I am not sure when the next time I will update. I will try to get one in while I am home for the holidays but if not it won't be till January so have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

All Star Game

Winning team..

MVP

3-point Contest

Saturday night..

5 hours of daylight...

2009-12-11T07:23:00.000-06:00

Well its 1:30 here in Iceland and due to the 50MPH gusts of wind outside I have choose to remain indoors today. Probably a good idea considering when I went to work out earlier I can honestly say without any exaggeration that the wind picked me up and moved me a little. It looked like a scene straight out of Winnie the Pooh, old school ones of course, and I think the exact name of the episode was the Blustery Day. Aside from that the days are getting much shorter here. I think the sun came up at 11:10am today and will set at approximately 3:30pm. Oh well I guess it could be worse and there could be no daylight at all.

This past week has been a pretty busy one, which has been nice as it has flown by for me! I spend the beginning of the week doing some Christmas shopping. Both Monday and Tuesday one of my teammates and I spent the days walking the malls and the main shopping street of downtown Reykjavik. I knocked out a big chunk of my list with many authentic Icelandic things, hopefully they will be big hits! On Wednesday we had a game in Stykkisholmur which is about 3 hours north of where I live. I am pretty sure we were in the backyard of Santa Clause but I didn't have any luck finding him. The good news is we found a win there which is what we wanted! I was one steal away from having a triple double as I finished the game with 32 points, 16 rebounds, 9 steals, and 5 assists. I think the 16 rebounds might be a career high for me, considering I never have been much of a rebounder until now.

This weekend is the men's and women's All-Star games along with a 3-point contest and a few other fun things. I was choose to participate in both the All-Star game and the 3-point contest, so I am looking forward to that and think it will be a fun weekend. It's also my last weekend until I go home for Christmas Break so that makes it exciting as well.

In 6 days almost to the hour I will be heading back to the States, although it will be 7 days when I actually get home to Springfield. And like the last time I wrote I am really looking forward to it. I did some serious packing yesterday and aside from the few things I have left to throw in the last minute I have practically everything I need packed.

Well I think that is all for now, just wanted to give a quick update. Until next time have a great weekend and take care!

Game against Snaefell..

Team Picture

Game against Snaefell..

14,400 Minutes and counting..

2009-12-06T18:14:00.000-06:00

I will be coming home for Christmas break in a week and a half, or in other words ten days, or 24o hours, or 14,400 minutes... Well you get my point. I am excited for my trip home, to spend time with my family, hang out with my friends, and get to watch my Alma Mater's play (Kickapoo High School and Iowa State of course). I am also excited to be able to celebrate my first New Years without having basketball practice the next day, not sure where I will be celebrating at but just as a for warning it could get crazy...

Due to my recent counting down of the days till I head home, the last week went by somewhat slow for me. It didn't help that our midweek game was cancelled which slowed down the week even more for me. We were suppose to play an away game on Wednesday in a town that is about 3 hours to the north, but due to the snow/ice storm that decided to hit that day it was postponed until this week. Hopefully the weather cooperates this time!

This weekend was the first game of the Subway Cup, a lose and your out kind of tournament. We played host to Valur and after a less than impressive first quarter we were able to pull out the win and move on to the next round. Aside from the first quarter I thought we played a really good game, especially against their box and one defense they decided to play. I finished the game with 25 pts, 9 rebs, 6 asts, and 5 steals but more importantly we finished the game with the win!

After the game a couple of the parents planned a surprise mystery trip for the team. We received a list of things we needed to bring with us but had no idea where we were going, which only made the trip more fun. The list included the following: (see if you can guess where we were going before you continue reading)

-Swimsuit

-Make-up

-Comfortable Shoes

-Warm Clothes

-2,000 ISK (about 15 dollars)

-Alcoholic Beverages if desired

-We will leave at 3:45, no exceptions and be home by midnight

So any ideas on where we went? One of the most popular guesses was the Blue Lagoon but once we started driving we realized that was definitely not it as we were going in the opposite direction. First stop was the huge geothermal energy plant east of Reykjavik. We received a guided tour of that plant as well as a science lesson in how the plant exactly works. If you didn't know Geothermal energy is one of the "greenest" forms of energy production and something many other countries should look into. After that we jumped back in the van to continue the trip, we were starting to get a little restless in the car and there might have even been a few beer cans popped open but finally we made it to our next stop... the Riverside Spa in Selfoss. We spent a little over 2 hours at the spa, which was a pretty good deal for only having to pay 2,000 isk for it. It was so nice to relax at the Spa and enjoy some quality time with my teammates. I made my team play the question game while we were sitting in the HUGE hot tub. Questions included what everyone wanted for Christmas, What the traditional Christmas dinner included, and When everyone's birthday was. I think my favorite quote from the questions was during the answers of what people wanted for Christmas. A teammate of mine said she needed some stuff for her kitchen like a toaster and stuff. A few answers later someone said they were asking for a trip to Spain and Spanish school. We were all pretty amazed with this Christmas idea which is where the quote comes from... "Damn that sounds a lot more exciting than a toaster." It was probably one of those stories that you had to be there for but I wanted to share it anyways cause it made me laugh.

After the Spa we knew the next stop had to be food of some sort but we just didn't know where. Then the light bulb came on in one of my teammates heads and she asked the driver (A teammates Dad) if we were going to his families summer house, he quickly stuttered out an answer "umm we, we don't have a summer house". Everyone immediately started cheering as they knew that he did have a summer house and it was where our final destination was. Of course during the whole story above I had no idea what was going on (I am still working on my Icelandic) but I was soon informed, thanks!

We arrived at the summer house and the best way to describe it is kinda funny but as a winter cabin you would find in Wyoming. It was a beautiful log like cabin out in the middle of no where. The best part was when we stepped out of the van to walk inside, the Northern Lights were noticeably displayed across the sky. It was one of those "awe" moments in my life and even though some of my teammates made fun of me for my excitement level, I took every minute of them in.

The rest of the night we enjoyed a delicious dinner followed by an assortment of games. Some of the younger girls on the team tried to play a trick on me, but like most people know I am a pretty big trickster myself and its hard to trick me, which the rookies found out quickly. After that I organized a game of catch phrase, which ended up being a big hit and it was followed by a game of "actionary" before we finally called it a night and headed home. Overall it was a great trip and a lot of fun, there are some great parents out here that take care of us!

Other than that I have spent most of the past week throwing a few things here and there into my suitcase to start packing for home. As well as doing some research for my 13 hour lay over I have in NYC on my way home. I am planning on going down to Times Square and Rockefeller Center during this layover but gotta figure out all the fine details that starts with the train getting there, as well as finding somewhere to store my luggage... Still a few details to iron out but I think it will work out which I am excited about! I have also spent a lot of time lately looking online for Christmas gift ideas and trying to decide if I will wait till I get home to buy anything or if I should just order online. Tough decisions tough decisions. Which reminds me I am planning on doing a little shopping here in Iceland tomorrow, hopefully I can find a few things for a few people on my list.

Well I think that is all for now, I will leave you with some pictures and until next time have a great week, stay warm if you are in the Midwest as I hear there is a huge snow storm coming, and take care!

P.S. Follow me on twitter for more frequent updates Twitter

Group Photo

HUGE touch screen at the Geothermal Plant

The Spa..

Rookies trying to play a trick on me

Setting up Catch Phrase

Giving Thanks...

2009-11-29T20:11:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving, a little belated but better late than never right? Well its been awhile since I have last updated and most of this blame goes to the fact I was entertaining guests for a week in Iceland. Yep you read right I had a couple great friends come out and visit me in the Land of Ice. A couple of my good friends from Iowa State decided to use their Thanksgiving break to come out and spend a week with me. It was so nice to have some friendly faces around and hang out with everyday.

The girls arrived on Friday the 20th at 6:30AM. I decided it would be a good idea to not go to bed that night and instead just stay up until I had to leave at about 6 to head to the airport. It worked out well until about 5:30 when I needed to splash some water on my face to stay awake, but once I started driving to the airport I was wide awake with excitement of their arrival. I actually had no idea that 2 people were coming and was very surprised when I saw both walk out to greet me!

Our adventures for the week started as soon as we were leaving the airport when I tried to pay the short term parking and it wouldn't let me. So after a few tries we had to go back inside and find help and finally we got it all figured out and were able to leave the airport. It was a perfect example of the daily struggles I encounter and we all got a good laugh out of it.

Once we got back to my apartment we all crashed and took a nap for about 4 hours. We then spent the afternoon driving around my town, going to the grocery store and things like that. As for that night my team had planned a big party for all us and then we hit up the downtown night life. Since we were only running on about 4 hours of sleep and the way Icelanders party by 5AM we were all dragging and ready to call it a night. Just when I was about to ask the girls if they wanted to call a cab to head home, I looked around and could only find one. Yep first night in Iceland with my American friends and I lost one. After about 30 minutes of searching the bars up and down the street and looking like a completely idiot she showed back up. I probably sounded like a mom when I told her she can't just run off like that in another Country without a source of communication and with that we called a cab and called it a night.

On Saturday I had practice at 3:30, which we almost over slept for but thank goodness for my default alarm that goes off everyday at 2:30. While I was at practice I let the girls use my car so they could drive around and explore. After practice we all got ready and decided to give an Icelandic Restaurant a try. So we did some research online and decided on one in downtown Reykjavik. I think we made a good choice as well all enjoyed our dinner and left the place stuffed and satisfied. We were unsure on what to do for the rest of the night and at about 11 we just decided to go sit at a bar downtown and have a few drinks. When we got to the first bar it we were 3 of the almost 7 people in the place. Like I have mentioned before, people don't go out over here till about 1:30, so we were about 2 hours early and it definitely showed. But we didn't care we just wanted to relax. We decided we would just have a drink at every bar we came to along the street, this only worked out for about 3 bars and after that is turned into a crazy night that only appropriately ended with me losing my wallet. Yep I got all the way back to my apartment to only realize I lost my wallet so I turned back around and headed back downtown at 7am. After checking every bar that we were in and lastly the pizza place we stopped at not once but twice that night I decided I wasn't going to find it and headed home. It was almost 8am and since my wallet had everything from my Debit cards, credit card, license, visa, etc. I decided to make some phone calls to get some of those things taken care of. I cancelled all my bank cards and got some preliminary information about how to obtain a new visa and with that I finally could relax and go to sleep at 8:45 AM that is.

We decided to take Sunday easy and sleep in. The only thing we really had planned was to go watch Rahshon's basketball game that evening, which he won and played very well. We headed to bed early on Sunday night as we had a big day of sightseeing planned for Monday.

We got up at about 7:30 on Monday morning, which I think that is the earliest I have gotten up since I have been here. It was still pitch black outside and stayed the way till almost 10:30. We decided to take a little sightseeing trip of the southern coast of Iceland. We first drove all the way to a town called Vik. (Look below for pictures) We got to Vik just as the sun was rising which we could have planned any better (even though we didn't plan it) Vik is a town right on the coast with a black sand beach and it was so beautiful to see the sunrise from the beach. Definitely a picture perfect sunrise. There is also some rock like things out in the water that reminds me of Peter Pan every time I see them. I am not sure if anyone else agrees with me but that's ok its my childhood imagination coming out of me.

After Vik we headed back the way we came to catch all the Waterfalls that southern Iceland has to offer, which is a lot (and a lot is an understatement). We stopped at as many as we could and took lots of pictures. We packed a picnic lunch that we enjoyed halfway through the trip and after about 5 stops at waterfalls, 1000 stairs (and thats not an exaggeration, we counted), a couple barb wired fences jumped, and frozen fingers we were ready to head home. The only last stops we made on the way back were to take pictures of the Icelandic horses and sheep, and to stop at the grocery store to pick up something to cook for dinner. Although we did encounter a unexpected stop when the lovely Icelandic police pulled me over for speeding. Losing my wallet was a blessing in disguise because it is practically what got me out of the almost $300 dollar speeding ticket. I would like to make the case that I was only going about 75 MPH, which over here is about 20 MPH over the speed limit, oops.

We finally made it back home at about 4:30. I had practice at 6 and while I was at practice the girls began cooking the big dinner we had planned. We decided to cook our own thanksgiving and I would have to admit we did a pretty damn good job of it. The menu was the following: Mac and Cheese, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Stuffing, Corn, Rolls, Layered Salad, and finally a whole chicken (we tried to find a turkey but didn't have any luck). We definitely had leftovers that we enjoyed the rest of the week.

On Tuesday we slept in a little bit and then hit up the Blue Lagoon. I didn't really know what to expect at the Blue Lagoon but I had heard nothing but good stories and if you don't know what it is check out this Link. The Blue Lagoon was definitely everything it had been talked up to be and it was such a cool experience, something I will always remember.

On Wednesday we decided to go to the restaurant I usually eat at for lunch. As usual the food was very good and I think the girls enjoyed having some more Icelandic food. We then did a little shopping before I had to get back home to get ready for my game that evening. Unfortunately the girls didn't get to see the best game as we lost but it was still nice to have them in the stands at the game. My team even surprised them with some t-shirts for the game that they wore proudly.

Thursday was the day they left and I took them to the airport that afternoon. It was a little sad telling them bye as I had really enjoyed their company the past week, but I was so thankful that they came and visited, it really meant a lot! On Thursday night, what I like to call my Host Family (the family that lives above me and who's daughter plays on the team) cooked me a HUGE Thanksgiving dinner. It was so nice of them, not to mention absolutely delicious. I am very lucky and thankful to have such amazing people surrounding me over here and that would do something like this. On a day like Thanksgiving where I was missing being with my family and my friends had just left, they did a great job of filling a piece of that void and I am internally grateful for that.

Aside from all of that the past few days here have been much more relaxing and uneventful. On Saturday I woke up to a very light blanket of snow on the ground that made me smile when I saw it. But when I woke up this morning that light blanket of know turned into a heavy cover of about 3-4 inches, but it still made me smile. Just something about snow that brings a smile to my face, I think it dates back to my childhood of playing in it and loving snow days! We also had a game today against undefeated and top of the league KR that didn't go so well. And I am currently sitting on the couch icing some very sore knees from it and listening to Christmas music (since officially I can start doing that!)

Well this update has quickly turned in a short novel and if I didn't lose any readers yet I probably will soon so I better end it. I hope you enjoy all the pictures below, they are worth all the reading you just did I promise....

They arrived!

All their luggage..

We are about to nap its 8am and we haven't slept yet

Touring the city..

Our cups for the evening

The Americans

Friday Night Group Photo

Saturday night, we met a friend..

Sunday night at Rahshon's game (sorry can get the pic turned)

At the Black Beach

The view that makes me think of Peter Pan

Waterfall

904 stairs..

We trespassed to get to this one...

Picnic

This one was freezing

Horses

I was going a little faster than this...

Blue Lagoon

And then we said Goodbye..

Flurries in the forecast... BRRR

2009-11-16T16:36:00.000-06:00

Hello again from Iceland. Its starting to get pretty cold here and the need for a warm winter coat is in full swing. Thank goodness I have a friend coming to visit this Friday and she is bringing me one! I am hoping this week goes by fast because I am ready for my friend to get here. We went to Iowa State together the past 3 years and became really good friends over the years. So I am really pumped she is coming all the way to Iceland during her Thanksgiving break to visit. I already have a list of things for us to do and that doesn't even count the random things we will do spur of the moment.

So back to last week, on Tuesday I went with one of my teammates and her sister and friends to see the LeBron James movie. I was actually really surprised cause the movie was really good, definitely brought back memories of my childhood basketball days and playing AAU. The movie really concentrated on the 3 guys that James grew up with and played AAU with every summer and then went on to play High School ball together as well. This really made me think back to my AAU days and have the rare opportunity to play with the same girls from when I was 9 years old till I was 16. That doesn't happen to often and I was blessed to be able to do that. It was cool to see the real game footage of LeBron's AAU team and see them play in gym, I myself had played in. Anyways not to ruin the whole movie, I recommend you go see it.

On Wednesday we had another game that we ended up losing in OT. I fouled out in the fourth quarter of the game, which really sucked and made me feel like I let down my team. Guess I better be a little more careful from now on with my fouls. On Thursday we had the day off but had to go to the local mall to help set up for a Christmas show (at least I think that's what we were setting up for, I am not really sure) Anyways we had to set up over 300 theater like seats. Lets just says after the 2.5 hours we were all dead tired and it no longer felt like we had the day off. So a couple of my teammates and I rewarded ourselves with our hard work by going to TGI Fridays for dinner. Once again it was amazing! Friday was a pretty uneventful day, as I didn't do a whole lot besides the typical workout, go to lunch and then go to practice. On Saturday we had a workout at the local fitness club at 10am and then had the rest of the day off. After the workout I definitely came back home and took a nap before I went and worked a boys basketball game. Which brings me to a short story about the game. The boys were about 16 years old and I know at that age guys can start to get a little cocky and have some attitude problems but I have never one as bad as one of the guys playing. Lets just say if I was his coach I would have pulled him out of the game sometime during the first half and wouldn't have put him back in. The kid got the ball stolen from him from a much smaller guy and then proceeded to shove him in the back at full speed, strike 1 for him from me. Strike 2 came when he seemed to be SOO tired that he couldn't even play defense but once his team was on offense its like he had all the energy in the world. But strike 3 was by far the worse. It was about 2 minutes left in the game and the other team was winning by almost 20. So this guy gets a steal and what looks like it would be a wide open dunk for him turned into a kid on the other team chasing him down and fouling him by reaching to slap the ball away. It wasn't a dirty foul by any means but this guy definitely thought it was so he shoved the kid to the ground and then reared back like he was going to punch him. Thankfully the ref stepped in and grabbed the guy. The guy was removed from the game but wasn't given a technical which I am still surprised by but I guess that is the least of my worries. I am more worried about the guy and his attitude problems, definitely did not make a good impression on me.

Anyways on Saturday night me and a couple of the Americans (Rahshon Clark formed Iowa State Cyclones and Kristi Smith former player at that other school in Iowa, yes there is a little Iowa State/Iowa rivalry over here as well.) went out in downtown Reykjavik. We stayed out till almost 5 am and then came back to my apartment and crashed. It was a fun night out and the next day the three of us went out to lunch and were able to look back at the night and laugh. Definitely made me feel like I was back in the States, as I always enjoyed going to Village Inn on a Sunday morning after a long night out on Saturday :). The rest of my Sunday I spent relaxing and cleaning my apartment. I was also able to watch the Iowa State women win their first official game vs. Florida Atlantic. Before the game started our Elite 8 banner from last year was dropped inside Hilton Coliseum. Although I wished I would have been able to see it in person, at least I got to catch it online. I still look back on last years season and can't believe everything we accomplished. And every now and then I watch this video and I still get goosebumps from it all! I ended my Sunday by watching the Patriots vs Colts football game. I am a HUGE Peyton Manning fan but was a little worried when I finally had to turn off the game due to not being able to keep my eyes open and the Colts were losing by 14 in the 4th quarter. It definitely made my morning to wake up and find out the Colts came back to win 34-35. I guessed I missed a great ending and a typical Peyton being Peyton leading his team to victory with less than 2 minutes in the game. A prime reason why I love him!

As for today, I think the weekend caught up with me as I slept in way to long, but I am really not complaining. Once I finally got up I went and worked out, then relaxed a little before I headed to practice. After practice I went a ran one of the younger team's practices and then went and watched the first half of our junior teams game. A lot of the girls that play on my team also play on the junior team so its nice to be able to support them in those games. As for now I am laying on my couch watching the Kentucky Men's team play on ESPN 360, and surprisingly they are getting beat by 15 right now by Miami, Ohio. So far I am not TOO impressed with Kentucky freshman John Wall, maybe a little to much hype around this young guy. This could be a good game and a great example of College Basketball.

Well I think that is all I have for now. I hope you all have a great week and until next time have a great week and take care! Also a special congrats to the Iowa State football team as with their win this past weekend the became Bowl Eligible, the first time since 2005. Gotta love Coach Rhoads and what he has done with this program already! Good luck to them this weekend as they travel down to Missouri to take on the Tigers. And I will be honest I have yet to decide who I am cheering for. Once a Cyclone always a Cyclone but I am also Mizzou born and raised!

Most recent game..(not a great pic though)

Got a nice package from my friend Kiley with some Athletic training supplies and

some South Dakota gear that I am definitely supporting!

Writers Block...

2009-11-09T14:51:00.000-06:00

I know what you are thinking, "She said she would update twice a week and its almost been two weeks and nothing". I am sorry for this, I have been distracted, busy and also suffered from writers block in there a few times as well. There was about 3 instances I sat down to update and just didn't know what to write about but I am ready to talk now...

Lets see since the last time I updated we had just lost a close game at Hamar and I was coming down with a cold. Well I ended up going to the doctor and being diagnosed with a sinus infection and sent home with some antibiotics. This was a relief to my Coach who was worried I might have come down with the swine flu. Thankfully before I left to come here I took the 10 pill tamiflu vaccination that I had saved from my college days. So hopefully this means I am clear of the swine flu which is going around over here just like it is back home. Because I was sick I spent that weekend curled up in my bed or on my couch just watching movies and recovering. I finally started to feel better by Monday and by Tuesday all I had was a slight cough.

Every week day I have been going to the restaurant I mentioned in my last blog, and so far so good. Although I have no idea what I am eating because it changes everyday and I have yet to find the sign that says what the special of the day is. Honestly I don't think there is a sign so I gave up on trying to figure it out. One day last week I had a very delicious casserole at the restaurant but no idea what it was or what was in it. I also attempted to try some fish one day and after about 10 bites I decided I really didn't like it, but hey at least I gave it a try. Today was a fish day at the restaurant as well but this time I decided to just stick with the soup and salad. Also last week I found the tanning beds here and bought a package. I was impressed to find out that they have some really nice tanning beds, like the huge ones that have air conditioning in them. Lets just say I think I came out ahead in the deal as far as price compared to those beds back home, so I was definitely pretty pumped about this. I have gone 3 times so far and my teammates are already jealous of my tan. Some where in my life I have acquired the ability to tan easy, which is definitely coming in handy.

On Wednesday we had a home game against Valur and if you would look at the stats after the game you would ask how did we win, as we were out rebounded by almost 20 and turned the ball over about 25 times but still won by about 15 points. I had a triple double for the game with 36 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. With the win we are now in third place in the league and still a lot of games to be played.

On Thursday my Coach had 4 tickets to the Premier of 2012, so a couple teammates and myself went and saw the movie. Funny story about this was about halfway through the movie the lights come on and everybody grabbed there jackets and headed out of the theater room. I was confused as this has never happened to me in a movie. My first thought when the lights came on was that there was something wrong with the movie film and they needed to fix it, but when every got up I immediately thought that the movie was over. Since it was a premier and the movie doesn't officially come out till later, I wondered it we only got to watch half of it. But I soon realized that this was just intermission and the movie started back up about 15 minutes later. And in the end I thought the movie was pretty decent, although there were some definite unrealistic parts.

Other than all of that I have just been staying busy with whatever I can find to do. I have gotten on a new schedule where I actually get up before noon here which has been nice. I try and get up around 11 and I go workout, after that I go have lunch at the restaurant, I then run any errands I have, then take a nap before I head to practice. With day light savings time back home I went from being 5 hours ahead of central time to 6 hours, which I am trying to adjust to a little. It doesn't really affect my sleep habits but mainly just the ability to keep in contact with friends back home.

I have one final story that happened last week that was pretty funny. I was doing laundry at the gym like I always do. I had quite of bit of laundry on this day because I decided since I had been sick to wash my sheets and stuff like that, so I needed to do two loads of laundry instead of just one. Well there are two washers at the gym and although I have only used one I figured I could use the other one as well and it couldn't be to hard to figure out. Well unfortunately I was wrong because after an hour and half my clothes were still inside the washer, just sitting there and the door was locked. So I decided I would just turn the washer off and let it sit for a few minutes and hopefully it would give me back my clothes. When I came back in the laundry room the washer had finally unlocked the door but the problem now was that there was water all over the floor. I had some how just flooded the laundry room. So I close the door and start looking for any towels I could find to clean up the mess. My other load of laundry was done and in the dryer so I decided to throw the clothes that had been held hostage in the other washer along with all the towels I had just used and just rewashed them. Finally after about 4 hours, a flooded laundry room, and a few trips back and forth to the gym, all my laundry was clean and dry, what a relief. And come to find out when I went to do my laundry yesterday, the one washer is out of order. So I have come to the conclusion that it really wasn't my fault and that the washer was indeed broke.

Well I think that is all for now. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures to share with you this time, hopefully next time I update I will have more. And until then I hope you have a great week and take care!

Highlighted my hair..

Sunday Nachos..

Beautiful view...

A new day

2009-10-29T15:41:00.000-05:00

The best thing about today is its Thursday, which is the day after Wednesday and makes for a new day. Lets just say Wednesday wasn't one of my better days here. On Tuesday night I started to get the feeling that I was catching a cold, and of course this carried over to Wednesday and the sick feeling was getting worse. So that was the start of this bad day. Then we had a game Wednesday night, against Hamar that we lost by 1. I have never been someone to put blame or make excuses for losing a game, so I won't do it this time. But all I can say is I hope, I really hope, we never get those refs again. I am not sure if I have ever been more frustrated, during and after a game in my life. The good news is that today is a new day, and there is still a lot of basketball to be played this season. Because I am still not feeling very good I spent most of today sleeping and haven't had much of an appetite. I guess its time to find some medicine to take or maybe tell someone that I am feeling sick. That will be my goal for tomorrow.

To go back to the beginning of this week, I received a very nice package from some good friends, Matt and Robert, back in Ames on Monday. And when I say very nice I mean amazing, it was stuffed to the top with all my favorites, I am definitely stocked up for awhile, as well as very thankful. Other than that I haven't had a lot going on this week. Which has been nice, especially with this cold I am battling. It gives me a lot of time to relax which I am not complaining about. The exciting news of the week is this morning I found out that the Haukar Committee worked out a deal with a local restaurant for me to have lunch at everyday. I am looking forward to this because one it means I don't have to cook all the time and two it gives me a chance to try some of the Icelandic food. I am planning on going there tomorrow, so I will let you know in my next blog how it is. The other news of the week is the video that showed up on You Tube this week. Although I am grateful to whomever put it up, I am also a little nervous that someone took that much time to make something like this. If you haven't seen the video check it out and you will understand what I mean... Video.

Well I think that is about all for now, I am still addicted to Grey's Anatomy and I have finished Season 2 and on to Season 3 now. The only disappointing part of this is that I have seen most of Season 3 so I actually know what's going on and what's going to happen. Oh well though I am still enjoying it. Also if you look in the pictures below you might notice that my hair color has changed. I decided to dye it the other night when I was bored. I was going for a dark blonde, light brown color but instead it turned out as more of a medium/dark brown, oh well. If I can find a hair place here I might get some blonde highlights put in, but if not then the next night I am bored I will try and do it myself, wish me luck. Well until next time I hope you have a great day and take care!

My coke collection is growing...

The package from Matt and Robert

Game vs. Hamar

Lots to talk about...

2009-10-25T11:15:00.000-05:00

Its been a week since I updated last and since then a lot has happened. Sorry it has taken me a week to update, I am going to try and fix this. Especially since I made a deal with my teammates that I would update at least twice a week for their viewing pleasure. I told Telma I would promise to try and update more if she would promise to provide pictures, so most of the pictures below are thanks to Telma!
This past week we had a game on Wednesday against Snaefell, which we won by about 30. Snaefell came into the game 2-0, and above us in the league standings so it was a good win for us. 7 must have been my lucky number for that game as I finished with 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and 7 steals, to go along with 26 points. We had the day off on Thursday, so like usual, I slept in and then went and saw the trainer to get some treatment. The good news about the treatment is I'm finally starting to feel some improvements, which is great news for me and my body. That evening I went to the Keflavik mens game with my teammate, Gudrun and her sister. Former Iowa State men's basketball player Rahshon Clark plays for Keflavik so it was good to see him as well as support the former Cyclone! You really know its a small world when you come to Iceland to play and find out another Cyclone is playing over here as well, but I am definitely not complaining as its nice to have a friendly face around.
On Friday I went to the gym to lift and did a pool workout. While I was lifting I had the pleasure of being "impressed" by the gentleman across the room. (I say impressed cause that is what the guy was trying to do, but lets just say I wasn't the least bit impressed) I am pretty sure after every set he would look over at me to see if I was watching and just when he thought he was pretty big time, I walked over to the dumbbell rack picked up a set of DBs about 10 pounds heavier than him and proceed to do the same lift he was doing. He left the weight room about 5 minutes later. Anyways after the gym, I ran a couple errands and then went to practice that evening. On my way to practice I ran into something very unusual, more unusual than the typical things I see on a daily basis. As I am driving I have to come to a complete stop due to 3 horses standing in the middle of the road. Until I later found out that all the horses are actually owned by someone, I thought that these horses just ran wild around the town, which is why I found this so unusual. But come to find out they just got out and were running around the country side, that is until they decided to stop right in the middle of the road in front of me. I had to honk my horn a couple times before they would actually move and I could make my way to practice. After practice I spent a good couple hours watching old Grey's Anatomy episodes on my computer. My new addiction is Season 2, which I just started watching this week and I am already about halfway through. The best part is I never watched Season 2 so all of it is new to me and I don't know whats going to happen, so I am thoroughly enjoying it.
Saturday was an exciting day! Although it started off not the best with 9am practice, which to my body still feels like 4am. I am pretty sure my Coach made the comment to me that if it wasn't for the basketball in my hands I would look like I was still sleeping. Ah good to know it was that bad, I had given myself to much credit when I originally thought it wasn't THAT bad. After practice I ran a practice for a 15 year old team. I am still getting use to these teams that I have been helping out with and not really sure what to do during their practices. Because of this I run the practices more like camps and doing a lot of fundamentals. I hope the girls don't hate me too much, haha. After the practice, the rest of my Saturday was pretty eventful. A couple of my teammates had planned a little road trip to take me on to see some of tourist attractions in Iceland. So me, Sara, Gudrun, and Telma drove about an hour and half and to see two amazing things. The first place we stopped was at this BEAUTIFUL waterfall. It was so cool, and although it was really windy and freezing I would have stood and looked at it forever. After that we went to the Geysir and hot springs. There are two geysirs in this area, one being the second highest geysir, just behind the Steamboat geysir, but unfortunately this Geysir, like Steamboat doesn't go off that often so I didn't get to see it. But I did get to see the other one which is just a little bit shorter than Old Faithful. It goes off every 8-10 minutes, and I got to see it go off a few different times. Also by the Geysirs were a lot of hot springs and steam pots. Take a look at the pictures below to see exactly what I am talking about.
After the sightseeing we headed back towards town, stopping on the way at the Hamar women's basketball game. My teammates sister plays for Hamar as well as another fellow American that I have became pretty good friends with. So it was nice to catch some of the game, and it was also good to watch the game as we play Hamar on Wednesday. After the game we went back to Reykjavik and grabbed dinner at Ruby Tuesdays, which I of course enjoyed very much. I headed home after dinner and relaxed before getting ready to go out that night. At about 10 I headed to my teammates apartment where we hung out before heading downtown to the bars. There was about 6 of us at the apartment, including a couple of my teammates and some girls off the Hamar team, including Koren the American that I have became pretty good friends with. It was fun to sit around and talk to her while also trying to learn some new Icelandic words from our teammates. I am not sure if we actually learned any or not, but it was still entertaining trying to pronounce things. We finally got to the bars at about 12:45, which was early because most people don't show up till after 1 or so. To make a long story short and to keep this blog rated PG, we stayed out till about 5am, before finally heading home. It was a really fun night and for the first time since being in Iceland I spent most of the night surrounded by Americans! The one story for the night that I will share is that one of the Americans that plays for one of the mens teams was standing at the bar when I was about to order a drink. I started talking to him and introduced myself and everything. We started talking and he asked where I was from and I said Missouri. He kinda looked at me funny and asked where at in Missouri, I said Springfield. His eyes got big and he said No way, I played at SMS (known as Missouri State now-a-days). It was funny cause when I first saw him play earlier in the month I thought he looked familiar but I figured since we was American that's why he looked so familiar and I didn't think about it much more than that. But I was right he did look familiar because I had seen him before in Springfield. So we stood there talking and I would throw out a name and he would know exactly who I was talking about. It seriously is crazy how small the world can be.
Anyways as for today I have spent the majority of it laying on the couch watching TV and hydrating :). And since I just realized its already 5:45pm here I will probably not do to much else then this the rest of the day. Well I think that is all I have for now, I will leave with some pictures and until next time, which should be Thursday (fingers crossed), I hope you have a great week and take care.

Geysir

Steam pots and hot springs

Waterfall

Road trip crew

Looks like a College kids fridge..
don't judge

Game vs. Snaefell

Wild horses

Rainy Saturday, good day to blog

2009-10-17T13:11:00.001-05:00

I am sitting here listening to the OU vs TX football game online and figured it would be a good time to blog. I guess the fact that one of my teammates sent me a message saying I needed to update helped as well (thanks Telma, glad I have a loyal reader!) Anyways I am sitting here yelling at the computer to tell OU to hold on to the football and for Texas for drop passes, while also being entertained by these announcers I am listening to. I chose, at random, a radio station that was broadcasting the game, and boy did I luck out, I think. Tom and his co-host Merv, are OU broadcasters so of course its a little bias, but I am pretty sure Tom likes to talk just to hear himself, and Merv who only gets a few words in, actually knows whats going on. Like I said its entertaining.
Anyways we had a game on Thursday at home against Grindavik. It was the first game of the season, and it was a tough one as well. We were down by 7 at halftime but came back and won by 12. I am pretty sure it was the worst first half of basketball I have played in a long time, but gladly the rest of my team kept us in the game. We played a really good second half and maybe the best 4th quarter of basketball we have played yet. I finished the game with 33 points and 15 rebounds. Who would have thought I could rebound which bring me to Friday. I emailed Coach Fennelly to wish him good luck on the first day of practice and tell him how much I wish I was there and how much I miss college basketball. Included in his response back was how he had no idea I was a rebounding machine. I had no idea about this either considering I averaged about 3 rebounds in college, I guess sometimes we can even surprise ourselves! Friday was also a busy day for me as I went to the trainer to get treatment and then had to go by the car rental place to get my "winter tires" put on. Due to the extreme weather in the winter, most of the cars have to get what they call winter tires that have more traction on them for the snow and ice. They were a little busy when I went in to get this and told me it would be an hour for them to finish. So they gave me another car and said come back in an hour. I ended up just going to the near by mall and walking around and finally just sat in the food court area and people watched until it was time for me to pick up my car. After that I just went home to relax for a little bit. I listened to a friends soccer game online before heading to my coaches house for dinner. This is the second time I have joined his family for dinner. The first time, was a true Icelandic meal, but this time it was homemade pizza! After dinner I headed to the gym to catch some of the men's game before our practice started. Friday's practice was pretty laid back, which I think everyone appreciated after the tough game on Thursday night.
As for today, we had practice this morning and then I went and reffed a little kids game. Which that was an experience. I had no problem reffing a game, as I have done that many times, but it was more the fact of communicating with the young kids. Although my teammates have been teaching me some Icelandic, I am no way good or even okay at it. So when I am calling fouls or telling the kids who's ball it is they look at me like I am speaking a foreign language, which I am to them. And then the low point of the game happened when I had to ask one of the 11 year olds, how to say "red and green" in Icelandic.. haha. It really wasn't that bad and I actually enjoyed helping out, although I am not sure if they will ask me to Ref again anytime soon. And like I mentioned earlier, I am currently laying on my couch listening to the OU/TX game and keeping up with the other college football scores. I also just finished making some delicious looking chicken fajitas that I am about to go enjoy. But of course before I finish I have to give you my funny story of the week...
Earlier in the week I was on my way to see the trainer and running about 20 minutes early. I decided that since I had the extra time and was sitting on a half tank of gas, I would fill up. So I pulled into the "N1" which didn't have an actual place to go inside to, but just pay at the pumps. This didn't bother me until I got up the pump and realized everything was in Icelandic. Still I decided that it can't be that hard, you put your card in, enter your pin and then fill up right? Nope wrong, I enter my pin and then another message pops up on the screen and I have no idea what it says. So I decide to just hit the red "x" button, figuring that was the cancel button which it was, and decided to give this gas thing another try later. Well that later time came last night, when my fuel light came on. I was a little apprehensive with my next trip so I unashamedly asked a teammate to come help me out. So my teammate, Gudrun and myself headed to the gas station after practice last night. The gas station we went to did have an actual place to go inside to, so I knew already it would be a lot easier than the last time, and once I got to the pump everything was in English so I felt bad even asking for Gudrun's help as I knew I could handle this. But then there I was, standing at the side of my car looking at my gas tank door and wondering where the hell is the button to get my tank door open. I looked all over my car for that little button or lever and finally once again had to ask Gudrun for help, she came over and like me was just as confused about the situation. So just when I decide to get the owner's manual out of the glove box in a last resort to figure this out, Gudrun walks over to my gas tank door and pushes it.. Yep you guessed it, it opened right up. I felt like an idiot but we definitely got a good laugh out of the whole experience. And to round it all out, my total for gas was 6001 isk.. its like trying to stop at $15 dollars and going over by that 1 penny to $15.01.
Anyways we have a game tomorrow at KR again. We just played them last Sunday and got beat, but didn't have our whole team for the team. So I am hoping tomorrow will be a different story, I am looking forward to it! Other than that, I had another highlight of the week when the package my mom sent arrived. The 20 pound box definitely made my day, as well as week! Well I think that is all for now, unfortunately I don't have many pictures to leave you with but I promise next time I will. Until then, have a great day and take care!

Thursday game

Things aren't good... they are great!

2009-10-12T17:28:00.001-05:00

Start of another week here in Iceland and I happy to say that most things are going great! On Friday I got to watch the Haukar mens team play, in a pretty exciting game that they ended up winning! We had practice after the game, which made for a late night since the game didn't get over till about 9:30. What was worse is we had practice scheduled for 9am on Saturday morning, but we were able to push it back till 11 which was nice. But I will be honest I will still pretty tired at the 11am practice. Unfortunately the one things I am still getting use to here, is the time change. I have a hard time getting up before noon, but I guess I can't really complain I have never been much of a morning person and would rather stay up late and sleep in.
Anyways after practice on Saturday there was a "fanfest" like thing at one of the malls close to Reykjavik. Me and two of my teammates went to the event, where we participated in a relay like event and signed some autographs for the kids. It was a fun experience to get out in the community and interact with some of the kids. The best part of going to the mall was going to eat at the TGI Fridays. I had thought about going to TGIF earlier in the week but hadn't gotten around to it, so when the opportunity to go with my teammates came up I jumped all over it.
The rest of my Saturday was pretty relaxing, I ran a couple of errands and made the second greatest purchases so far (the first being Coca-Cola of course).. a fan. I originally packed a fan for my trip over, but when I got here and by the looks of my luggage you would understand why, the fan didn't work. So for the past two weeks I have been using the application on my Itouch called "white noise" that plays the sound of a fan to go to sleep to. Yes its as pathetic as it sounds, but I have always sleep with a fan and I am so use to it that its hard to sleep without one. Lets just say the past two nights might have been my best nights of sleep so far! In conclusion the $25 dollar desk fan, was well worth it!
Sunday was game day. We played KR in what they call the Champions cup (or something like that). Its a game between the champions from the Subway Cup and the League Champions. The game was also a Charity game for children's heart disease, which made the game even more meaningful. Especially when before the game started there were about 10 kids that came out onto the floor that had been affected by this disease. How could you not play your hardest for something like that? Unfortunately we lost the game, but hopefully we learn from the loss, as we play KR again next Sunday! After our game the Men's Champions cup played which I stayed and watched. It was a Really good game, as it was close most of the game and came down to the last few minutes before it was decided. I headed home after that, which reminds me, getting to the KR gym was a task for me. I have always had a pretty good sense of direction and can usually figure out how to get around pretty easily. Which has been the case in my town so far, but KR was located in Reykjavik and I haven't had a lot of time to find my way around there. So I did what any typical American would do.. Mapquest. Come to find out, Mapquest doesn't work in Iceland, so I had to go with a different route in finding directions... the old school way of getting a map and making my own step by step directions to the gym. In the end I only had to make one U-turn and made it to the gym 15 minutes early! And then my sense of direction kicked in when I was driving home from the gym as I didn't even have to look at my directions to find my way! Take that MapQuest!
So this week we start league play. Our first game is a home opener on Thursday against UMFG (and no don't ask cause I have no idea what that stands for) and then we play on Sunday once again at KR. Should be a fun week and I am looking forward to the league play to begin. Its kinda been like the games we have played so far have been Exhibition and now the real season starts! Aside from that, I believe Christmas (or my birthday) has came early here as I got two packages in the mail today. One being from a good friend who sent me 6 MP3 Cds, which equals a little over 200 songs!! I am pretty excited to listen to all the new music. The other package was a box from my second family back in Iowa, the Crawfords! They sent me all of my favorites, Mac and Cheese, Gushers, Hot Chocolate, Rice Krispie Treats, a few packs of Gum, and the best part some pictures of Thomas and Abby! They are getting so big and I definitely miss seeing them! I have already tore into the box of Gushers as well as put the pictures up on my fridge! It definitely made my week getting this stuff!!
Aside from all of that my funny story of the day is this... I am sitting in my living room this evening just watching TV and surfing the internet, when something catches my attention out of the corner of my eye. And walking across my floor is a Cat.. yep the neighbors cat came in through my bedroom window. Although I would have liked to make friends with it, I think my high pitched scream scared it away for a few days :(. And even though I would like for the cat to come back and visit, I think I need to close my window so no other animals come creeping in. Well I think that is all for now, until next time have a great week and take care!

Decoration in my Apartment!

Charity Game

All my Goodies!!

Pictures on the fridge

Day off

2009-10-08T11:22:00.000-05:00

Its Thursday which means we have to day off today, from practice that is. Of course I still got up at a decent time and went to the gym and got a shooting workout in. So far one of the best things about the team I play for is they have a "Gun", which for those who have no idea what I am talking about, it is not a firearm but instead a machine that rebounds and passes to you. One of human's greatest inventions. So after about an hour of shooting on the Gun, which come to find out is equivalent to 500 shots, my arms were dead and I called it day. Fun fact to go along with this, one of the best things in the world is to shoot in a empty gym. The only sound you hear is the bouncing of a ball and the swish of a net, pure bliss.
So far this has been a pretty busy and exciting week. Monday I decided to make a trip to InterSport, which is one the sports stores here. Reminds me a lot of a Scheels or Dicks, but unfortunately the prices did not remind me of these places. I just wanted to look and wasn't expecting to buy anything unless there was something I really wanted. Well I found a Nike sweatshirt that I fell in love with but the $100 price tag was a slap in the face and I immediately put the sweatshirt back on the shelf and continued to look around the store. The only other thing that caught my eye in the store was a winter coat that I am in much need of. But like the sweatshirt, the price tags on most of the Coats were a little out of my range, for now that is. Ask me in a few weeks when my body is an ice sickle and it might not be out of my range then. Monday was also my first visit to the physical therapist/trainer. I have been having some weird pain in my left leg, not my typical knee pain so I figured I should probably figure out whats wrong before I make something worse. I tried to explain to the guy what was wrong but not sure if he or I completely understood what was going on. So he did some treatment and told me to come back on Wednesday. In the end attempt number one at the PT.. Fail. We had practice Monday evening, which was the typical 90 minute practices, I am still getting use to only practicing for 90 minutes as I am use to the 3 hour practices back in College. Is it a problem I can honestly say I miss the 3 hour practices?!
The big news of the week was the snow storm that came Monday evening. Before I went into practice there was some freezing rain mixed with flurries in the air. Not thinking it would turn into much was a bad idea. When practice was over, everything was covered with a blanket on snow. I will admit it was pretty but snow this early in October was not ok with me. Good thing it didn't last much longer than 24 hours!
My Tuesday was pretty unproductive, which reminds me of a recent friends twitter updating stating that Tuesdays might be the most overlooked day of the week.. I think they might be right. Maybe next week I will make Tuesday my big day, just so it doesn't feel worthless. With that brings on Wednesday, hump day for those of you who work and are excited for Wednesday cause it means the week is half way over! My Wednesday began with a trip to the immigration office, which remind me why government offices are suppose to be the most organized and professional places yet you have the feeling of not only yourself feeling lost but the people who are trying to help you are just as lost. After aimlessly walking around the office trying to figure out where I needed to do (Note none of the signs were in English, Its the immigration office for Iceland, clearly most people that go there are not from Iceland so why not use another language on the signs?) I finally found the right desk, talked to the man (who once again seemed lost with what I was asking) and after a lot of clicking of the mouse on his computer screen, I signed a piece of paper and took a picture and that was it. Wow seemed like that could have taken a lot less time instead of the 45 minutes, oh well. I then headed back to the PT, on the drive there I tried to think of other ways to explain the pain I was having that maybe would be easier to understand. I think it worked because after attempt number 2 with treatment I could sense a slight improvement. So in the end attempt number two... Success. Scheduled again for Friday hoping to go 2 out of 3 this week!
Other than all that I have one entertaining story before I leave you. Before practice one day I decided to go to the fitness center to sit in the hot tub to just warm up my muscles. Before you get into the pool, like an many fitness places, you must shower. I clearly knew about this rule and was in no way trying to get around it. But unlike most I choose to take my pre pool shower in my bathing suit.. bad idea. Before I knew it I had a lady worker yelling at me, in Icelandic of course, and pointing at the sign. This is the sign that says "please shower before entering the pool area". I soon realized that for some unknown reason this pre pool shower can not be taken with a swim suit on, as if my swim suit, which i will be wearing into the pool can't be cleaned in the shower, instead lets not wash my swim suit and let whatever germs that are on it get into your swimming pool. So this is what the lady was yelling at me, and while now I have the attention of everyone in the locker room I proceed to take off my swim suit to finish showering, only to put it right back on to go into the pool. Note to self, common sense can not be taken into account sometimes. I look back on the experience and laugh and also realize that every culture is different, and adapting to it is the key.
With that, I am adapting well to the culture of Iceland. And although I usually have no idea what the people at the stores are saying to me, if I smile say takk (thank you in icelandic) and walk away all is well.
That is all for now, until next time have a great day and Go Cyclones!!

Take Care and God Bless!

Above: Before Practice

Below: After Practice

Forgot something..

2009-10-04T20:13:00.000-05:00

I forgot to let you know how the games went this weekend. We played Friday night and won by about 15. Although I think I finished with about 25 points I don't think I played that well. I never felt into the game, maybe it was the 10 minutes warmup, or the 3 hour drive where I was stuck in the back seat with no leg room, either way no excuses I just plain sucked. Or like my mom would have said if she was at the game.. "Get a purse Heather" :). Saturday morning we had practice and then played again that afternoon. This game was a little better for me, as I think I finished with 8 threes, but more importantly I actually felt like I played well and was into the game. After the game we loaded up the vans and headed back home. We stopped up in the mountains to take some pictures and have a small snow ball fight, and as most of you know I am always done for a little prank here and there. So after our coaches pushed half of the team down in the snow while we were taking a picture, I figured I would get him back. We loaded up the vans to get back on the road and Coach was about to start the car back up I stuck a hand full of snow down the back of his shirt, lets just say I better watch my back on future road trips. But that's okay cause I feel like it was a bonding moment for me and the team.

A new week

2009-10-04T18:48:00.000-05:00

Nothing better than a relaxing Sunday and I took full advantage of it. Slept in a little this morning and then went and watched the Championship Game of the Powerade cup. Really wished we would have been playing in the game, but we weren't so I figured I would at least go watch it. KR won the game, which is who we play in our upcoming game so it was nice to do a little scouting on them while I watched. After watching I was more than looking forward to playing them on Sunday, it should be a tough game. I headed back home after the game, only to leave again to run a few "errands", and when I say errands I really mean pointless shopping at stores that I received ads from in the mail. I first visited the Europris, which reminded me of a Walgreens, it had a little bit of everything. I regretted not looking around more inside the store but I was in a little bit of a hurry, I wanted to hit all the stores on my list before they closed. I ended up purchases a case of Coca-Cola (a much needed purchase) and some pizza pans for my oven... also much needed! After the Europris I went next door to the Video rental place, that also serves food. I was craving a cheeseburger which is there specialty, so that is what I got with french fries and a coke. Also included is there special sauce they use to dip fries in, which i have become a big fan of. Its a mix of ketchup and mayo and I will have to admit is delicious. After Europris I hit up Kronan one of the grocery stores here. I received an ad in the mail for them earlier in the week and wanted to check it out. I bought a few things and then next visited the other grocery store called Bonus where i finished up the last of my grocery shopping. That was it for the errands of the day and I headed home where I spent the rest of the evening watching and listening to different sport games on the Internet. I was happy to see both Manning brothers win and disappointed the Cards lost in extra innings. Thank goodness for the Internet and ESPN.com so I can keep up with all my teams.
As far as this week, we don't play again till Sunday so we will just practice all week. We don't practice until 6pm in the evening so I am hoping to do some more exploring during the day time. I want to hit up the sports store in Reykjavik, as well as the mall. I might even end up having lunch at the TGI Fridays that looks delicious every time I drive by it.. I always told myself I would never be that person that goes to a restaurant by themselves but I will do it and be perfectly ok with it.

I am going to leave you with a couple interesting fun facts about Iceland.. Most of their intersections are round-a-bouts, which I have always liked the idea of but never thought they were most safe, but I am getting use to them, and quickly.. The few stoplights they do have are not unusual except for the fact they use the yellow light for both when the light is about to turn red as well as when its about to turn green... And lastly, they have a Restaurant called American Style, which I have yet to eat it. Every time I see it and think about it reminds me of my college days when we would go to dinner at Outback and ask Aus if it made her feel like she was at home. She always answered with a big NO, which I have a feeling will be my reaction when I go to eat at American Style, but we will see..

Well that is all for now, until next time have a great week and take care!Drive home from the weekend roadtrip, we stopped for pictures

Roadtrips...

2009-10-02T19:05:00.000-05:00

I am currently sitting in a computer lab of a school in the town of Stykkishólmur, Iceland. This is where we are staying the night. We drove to this town this afternoon for a game that started at 7:15.. it was a 3 hour bus trip and we arrived at about 6:45. Give us 15 minutes to change and then 15 minutes to warmup, lets just say I was a little rusty when the game started. After the game we showered at the gym, then hurried to the local pizza place before it closed. I was skeptical of the name "3 fish" but like you always hear don´t judge a book by its cover.. The pizza was delicious. Along with the pizza they served fries, I have noticed fries are a big side here, and are served with most meals. I am not really complaining as at least it is something I like. Which brings me to another story, last night my Coach invited me to dinner at his families house, he said his wife will be cooking an Icelandic dish. I was excited to try some Icelandic food, that was until he told me what it was. Lamb liver and kidneys... hmm good thing his wife cooked a plan B of chicken and pasta, which was very good.
So anyways we have practice in the morning and then we play another game in the afternoon before we head back home. I can already tell I will be exhausted by Saturday evening and hoping that we will have Sunday off to relax.
Before we left town today, I did a little exploring around the city I live in. I first went to the bank and picked up my debit card, which was a relief to finally get that, as I had been paying in cash for everything so far. Lets just say it sometimes took me awhile to count out the exact amount for what I am paying for and probably getting on the cashiers nerves, as well as the other people in line. After that I went to the grocery store, a different one then I went to the other day due to the fact I got some ads in the mail for this one and wanted to check it out. I bought a couple things but will return there again shortly to make a bigger purchase. After that I just drove around exploring a little and finding out where things were exactly. I found the subway, a big relief, as well as the mexican joint called Serrano. Both will visited frequently during my stay here. After all of that and surprisingly not getting lost I headed back home to eat some lunch before we left town.
All in all I think it has been a pretty successful day as well as a new experience. I can only hope I have the same luck tonight when I try and sleep, as I sometimes struggle with sleeping in new places. Good thing I packed some tylenol PM and made a good playlist on my Ipod before I left. So with that I am off to bed... Until next time have a great day and take care!!

Short and Sweet

2009-09-29T19:28:00.000-05:00

40 game minutes (which equals about 90 real time minutes) later my legs want to murder me. I better sleep with one eye open tonight, seriously I am not kidding. Ok you're right I doubt my legs are going to detach from my body and strangle me but rest assured if they could they would. I played the whole game tonight, which isn't a big deal typically. But the team we played full court pressed the whole game and usually had 2 and half girls guarding me. Its part of the game though and its what I love about it. But I do hate to lose, which is what happened tonight. People told me I had a good game but we will lost and I take blame, I always will. In the end we lost by 11, we didn't play the best and I know we can play better. Practice tomorrow we have to come ready to go, ready to learn and ready to improve.
On another note its starting to get colder here, I am not sure if I packed enough sweatshirts. Hopefully people do not make fun of me when they see me wearing the same things every other day. Oh well they already look at me weird, I am getting use to it. I was really excited to find out the team has a "Gun" the shooting machine! I went in this morning and was able to shoot on it, will probably try and do it everyday. I better warn my arms and shoulders now, or they could be in the same boat at my legs. Don't worry I am treating my body to a hot tub tomorrow before practice. And tonight after the game a "treated" them to an ice bath. How can they be that mad at me?
Well like the title says this is going to be short and sweet, so I am ending it here. Not sure how many readers I have but you have any questions just ask I will try and answer them in my future posts!

Until next time.. have a great day and take care!

Manic Mondays...

2009-09-28T11:06:00.000-05:00

Its a beautiful Monday here in Iceland, about 45 degrees and the sun is shining. This is a nice day here, yes I said 45 degrees is nice! Today has been a a busy day so far. I woke up at 7:30 this morning and decided since I was awake I would send some emails out to figure out the status of some of my things here in Iceland. By 11 I got a phone call that my car was ready and someone would be by soon to pick me up to take me to it. I got a nice VW car, its a standard and they were surprised when I told them that I knew how to drive it. Once I got my car I made a trip to the bank and got my account set up as well as exchanged some money. I felt like such an idiot and a tourist cause I had to ask the people i was talking to if they spoke English, I am sure they hated me. After that I went to the grocery store and picked up a few things. Well actually a few things turned into a lot of things, and a cart full later I had spent $60. Oh well at least I have food in my apartment now. We had practice this evening at 6pm, and after practice I went with a couple of my teammates to the fitness center across the street and sat in the hot tubs.. it felt amazing and I think my body appreciates it. I then went home, one of my teammates gave me a new TV, it was much bigger than the first one I got and I am pretty pumped about. I got it all set up this evening and went to turn it on with the remote (which is the only way it will turn on) and the batteries were dead, guess I will have to get some new ones before I will get to enjoy the big screen. I cooked myself dinner tonight, spaghetti with some garlic bread. It was delicious although it needed some salt which was something I didn't find or get at the store, oh well I still enjoyed it. We have a game tomorrow so I am getting ready to head to bed. I will update you after the game and let you know how we did.. until then have a great day and take care!
That's my car! A VW Polo, pretty sweet!

2009-09-25T18:41:00.000-05:00

Well hello! For starters I do not have phone service like I originally thought I would. I do have an cell phone for Iceland though, that should be interesting to use. So I ended up getting into Iceland about 7:30am, the airport was about 45 minutes from where I am living so I got to see a little of the "country" side during the drive. There are like no trees. It was like landing on the moon or something, just lava rock everywhere. But once I got into the "cities" more like small towns it was different. More green grass and stuff like that. So my apartment is pretty nice. Most of the houses here look from the outside like apartments or duplexes. My apartment is below this family that is associated with the Basketball team, and their daughter plays on the team, so that makes it nice since I will know someone so close. The apartment is pretty big, and they went to IKEA and bought my a bunch of furniture and stuff to go into it, so its pretty sweet. A lot of the houses I have been in, which is like 3, have looked like they came straight out of an IKEA magazine. Its cold here, been in the lower 40's and rainy, but still a lot of sunlight so far. As far as food, yesterday for lunch one of my teammates took me to the mall food court and I was able to choose between Sbarro, Subway, McDonalds, or Dominos.. Am I in America? And then last night for dinner we went to the combo KFC/Taco Bell, so much for giving their cuisine a try. We had practice yesterday to teach me the plays, there was only like 4 of them so it took me a whole 5 minutes to learn, the coach was impressed. I told him I had about 200 plays in college so learning 4 was pretty easy. The coach told me that he is going to need me to play about 35-40 minutes a game, nothing like jumping right in. Good thing I packed 2 tubes of Icy Hot instead of just one. One other thing, I got my gym membership to this place next to our gym. They are obsessed with swimming pools here, that's all they would talk about. But also at the gym, behind the desk where you check in, is a huge variety of metroplex, muscle milk, all kinds of stuff made me laugh, I guess the US isn't the only place that uses all that stuff. We had our first game this evening and won by 25 points. I didn't shot the ball well from the 3-point line but still ended the game with 24 pts. To go along with that I had 12 rebounds, 10 assists, and 10 steals. First time I have ever done something like that in my career. We have practice tomorrow morning at 9am, a little early for my likings but its part of the job. With that I think I am going to head to bed.
Until next time... Take Care

Cardinals, Games, and oh yeah.. ICELAND

2009-08-31T11:55:00.000-05:00

What a crazy couple of days, but fun and exciting as well. The big news is that I signed a contract to play basketball in Iceland for the upcoming season. I leave September 14th, and surprisingly the flight isn't to bad. I fly from KC to Minneapolis and then have a non-stop flight to Reykjavik, Iceland, a 7 hour flight. That's nothing compared to the 16 hour flight I had to Taiwan so it shouldn't be bad at all. Once I get there, I will be staying in a Guesthouse not to far from the gym. I will get some kind of car to drive, which I am still interested to see just what they provide me. I am really looking forward to heading over there. I think it will be a lot of fun and new experience to learn from.
Aside from that, I spent last weekend in St. Louis with one of my best friends and her husband to go to the Cardinals game. Its always a great day when I get to see Games but to add Cardinals baseball on top of that made for a fantastic weekend.
Not to whole lot more going on. Just trying to figure out what I need to pack for Iceland and how I am going to fit it all in 2 suitcases... wish me luck!

Time to say goodbye

2009-08-27T21:32:00.000-05:00

Sorry its been so long since I last updated. A lot has happened in the past few months, some good, some great, some bad, and some worse. I went through senior night at Iowa State, standing in front of 10,000 of the best fans in the country and explaining how great of an experience I had at Iowa State and how I will never forget my 4 years.I followed my Dreams and played in the Sweet 16 while also making the Elite 8, a memory I will cherish and replay over and over again in my life. I was a bridesmaid in my best friends wedding, and was so happy to be a part of her special day! I graduated from College with a double major, the first to do so in my family. I went to New York and played in a Pro Exposure camp where I made the All-Star team while also being named Co-MVP. While in New York I realized just how amazing the "Cyclone Family" is, as I stayed with an alumni who welcomed me into his apartment with no hesitation. I walked down times square and stood in awe as I looked at Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty. I hosted an unforgettable beer pong tournament, where I am still at little fuzzy on the details of that day... Me and the Hawkeye bottle will never be friends again. I spent an amazing week on the island of Boca Grande, running on white sand and relaxing on the private beaches. I ended an era in Ames, Iowa host of some of the best times of my life. I celebrated my best friends 21st birthday, and said my goodbyes to my teammates aka my best friends. I met new people, and fell out of touch with old. I grew up while still having that inner child inside me. I made mistakes, and I learned from them. I told some people how I felt and regretted not telling others. And now I living an untypical 22 year olds life. Living back in my parents basement until I figure out the next steps in my life. And until that happens, that's all I have.

Senior NightSweet 16 Berkeley, California

Wedding Day.. Mr. and Mrs. Fennelly2009 GraduateFarewell Ames, Iowa

Stressful but refreshful

2009-02-02T21:55:00.000-06:00

Another week of Big 12 basketball down in the books. After a stressful bye week and eventful weekend I can say I am glad the week is over and the next one has begun. Although it already seems to be much like the last one as far as stressful. Its that time of the years where the tests begin, papers and due and the wear and tear of playing Big 12 basketball starts to take a toll on you. But its part of being a Division 1 basketball player and I wouldn't want anything less.
So lets get to the eventful weekend. We hosted #12 K-State and brought back many of past cyclone greats for a reunion weekend and tribute to the 1999 Elite 8 team. With a crowd of over 11,000 and an all-around solid K-State team that beat us by 7 about 2 weeks ago the stage was set. With a 22-19 halftime lead and a gutsy call by our head coach, we started on the court for the halftime tribute to the 1999 team. WOW is about all you can say about it, aside from motivational. The saying of the week was "Not tonight" not on a night where players from the past were here, players that brought this program to where it is today, and players that would expect nothing less than our best. So in a back and forth game, we finally pulled away in the last minute in a half to pull off the 60-50 upset. With all the past players in town and a huge win for us current cyclones the only right thing to do was celebrate. We enjoyed an exciting and fun night on Welch, with the whole Cyclone Family.
Now its time to prepare for an very good team in Texas A&M who is coming to town on Wednesday. They are currently ranked 6th in country and bring a unique style of basketball to Ames. In a game that will feature on one end a very very athletic quick and pressing team vs. us, it will all come down to fundamentals. After that we will travel to Boulder, Colorado to play the Buffalos on Saturday.
Aside from all of that, how about the Super Bowl on Sunday. An exciting game, but I wasn't too impressed with the commercials this year. Maybe with the economic condition of our country spending millions on commercials wasn't worth it this year. But I did have a couple favorite in the Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head commercial as well as the Budweiser ones.
Until next time have a great week and GO CYCLONES!

Celebration after the K-State Win!
Just some comedy to share from Cyclone Country. HAHA

Its Big 12 season

2009-01-25T16:55:00.000-06:00

Well its been awhile since I wrote last, I have been so busy with getting back in the routine of school, late practice and traveling. Since I wrote you last we had just beat Vanderbilt and since then we have beat another ranked team in Okie State and lost two close games on the road to #5 Baylor and #16 K-State. Both games were pretty close and if we wouldn't of had some mental mistakes the results of the games could have been different. But we have learned from our mistakes and beat Missouri at home and went on the road to Nebraska and got a win. We haven't won at Nebraska in 5 years, and it was something us 5 seniors really wanted to do. Unfortuantly we had a few set backs during the trip. Like usual, something always happpens when we go to Lincoln. Its either someone has an injury, someone gets a concussion during shoot around or like this year, I got dealthy ill and spent most of the trip in my hotel bed sleeping. I was running a 101 temperature the night before the game. Our trainer Denise O'Mara had to go to Walgreen to get me antibotics at about 11pm. Thank goodness our game wasnt till 8pm on Saturday, so I had some time to try and recover. Thankfully by the time the game started I felt good enough to play, but lets just say after the game my body was NOT to happy with me. But oh well it was worth it, we got our first win in Lincoln in 5 years and moved to 3-2 in conference play. Gladly this week is our bye week and we dont have another game till Saturday at home against K-State. Which will be a tough game as not even two weeks ago we went to their place and lost by 7. The game on saturday is also very special as its our reunion game for the 1999 team that made it to the Elite 8!

Other than that I have been staying busy with my last semester of classes. I am currently taking 5 classes, but it really isnt as bad as it sounds. Two of those classes are online elective classes that I will most likely take Pass/Fail. So in all actuallity I just have 3 classes that I really have to focus on. My 22nd birthday is coming up pretty soon, 20 days actually. Its a pretty exciting special day for me as we play Texas that day. The game is on ESPN 2 and is the Pink Zone game. Both us and Texas will be wearing pink uniforms and pink shoes in awareness for Breast Cancer. So I advise you to tune in and watch the game if you can.

Well as I mentioned earlier, I am still pretty sick so I think I am going to get back in bed and relax. Until next time, have a great day and GO Cyclones!

Celebrating after a win!

Bye Bye #19 Vandy

2009-01-05T16:57:00.000-06:00

So its been a good week. We are still on break, which means no classes, lots of time to sleep and the only thing I have to worry about is basketball. Which is a lot to worry about though. We hosted our own tournament right after Christmas where we beat Niagara and North Dakota State both by more than 20. Although they might not have been close games we were able to work on some things that we as a team needed to fix. After the Championship game on Tuesday we hit up the night life of exciting Ames to celebrate our victory along with a teammates 21st birthday. Lets just say we left a pretty good impression on Welch Ave that night as we hit up the karaoke bar where we, as a team, sang Taylor Swift's Love Story and although we might have the worst singing voices ever we definitely entertained the very crowded bar and we are still enjoying the laughs from it. By the end of the night I think combined the team consumed over 60 shots, made a few bad decisions and the next morning combined for only about 10 hours of sleep... lets just say the next day at practice was a rough one. But like champions do we made it through. Unfortuantly we were all to "tired" to really do anything for New Years Eve even though our practice was not till 4pm the next day, many of us enjoyed the drop of the ball from our very own bed or couch but I was not like the rest. I decided to venture out to the bars for another night of craziness in good ole ames. I met up with some friends at the bars and although the smell of alcohol almost made me sick I really enjoyed the night, I had a sip of Champange at midnight and that was the only bit of alcohol I consumed yet the night, from beginning to end, couldn't have been any better!!

The beginning of the New Year has been a great one so far. On saturday January 3rd we knocked off Number 19th in the Country Vanderbilt 55-51 with a little help from Hilton Magic! The game might not have been the prettest but we played hard and proved that we are a very good team. Of course after a win like that we had to celebrate again, and with Sunday off it was no question where you would find us that night. So we proceeded with Round 2 of the week and hit up the night life of ames once again. This time we were a little smarter, in many areas ;), with our decisions that night. Instead of over 60 shots I think we cut it down to 40, and instead of Karaoke we sang with the jukebox. I believe if you ask most of the team they would call this past week and the beginning of a new year a VERY BIG SUCCESS (although maybe a little expensive for some)!!!

Well I am planning on enjoying this last week of break before I begin my last semester of my Senior year. We have one more game before the Big 12 Season starts, then the next few months will be pretty busy with games, traveling and school. But I plan on living it up as it is my last go around...Happy New Years!!
A few from the New Years Eve Group

Celebration after beating Vanderbilt

Back to work

2008-12-27T23:26:00.000-06:00

After a great Christmas break, its time to get back to work, as in basketball practice. We had practice the day after Christmas in preparation for the tournament we host on December 29th and 30th. After that we have a tough game with SEC powerhouse Vanderbilt who we lost to last year on their home court. Then its on to Conference games, and for those who don't know, The Big 12 conference is the toughest conference in the country, half of the teams are ranked in the Top 25. I can't believe two-thirds of the season is over, it sure does fly by. Its already been a interesting and exciting season already. Starting off with our trip to Hawaii during Thanksgiving break. Since the trip I have now changed my career choice to... Professional Surfer. I am currently in the market for a surf board so I can begin my new dream :). After that we came back home, had a tough loss at Iowa, but since the loss I think we have grown very much as a team. We are currently on a 3 game winning streak and looking to continue that streak into conference play. During that streak I hit a personal milestone of reaching the 1,000 point club, which is a very prestigious list that I am honored to be part of.
I am definitely ready for the New Year and to make sure that the best days of 2008 are the worst days of 2009!! Although I am sure we will have early practice on January 1st I still want to enjoy the New Years Eve festivities. I really can't believe I am almost done with my college career, one semester left, it definitely seems like just yesterday that I was a freshman. I am really hoping to live my last semester up with basketball, school and just life in general. I don't want to have any regrets once I graduate... There are things I still need to do like make sure people know how I really feel, even if its in a good way or a bad way. That's what this new year will bring. So until then have a great last days of 2008!!